Object configurations can be perceptually represented at various hierarchical levels. For example, in visual search, global Kanizsa figures are detected efficiently, whereas search for local groupings is inefficient, with similarity-dependent nontarget interference arising at the hierarchical level that defines the target (Conci, Müller, & Elliott, 2007). The present study was designed to examine the electrophysiological correlates of this global-local search asymmetry. The results revealed differences between hierarchical object levels to be evident throughout a number of processing stages: search for a global, versus a local, target elicited larger amplitudes in early sensory components (P1, N1). Moreover, the efficiency of attentional orienting towards a target was mirrored in the Posterior Contralateral Negativity (PCN), with PCN latencies being substantially delayed (by ∼ 70 ms) with local, versus global, targets. Finally, late components (P3 and slow wave--SW) reflected the overall search efficiency, which was determined by both the hierarchical level at which the target was defined and the similarity-based nontarget interference. Taken together, this pattern shows that multiple, sequential processes of object completion contribute to the attentional precedence of a globally bound object over a mere local element grouping.