Perceptual expertise and the plasticity of other-race face recognition

Tanaka, James W.; Heptonstall, Bonnie; Hagen, Simen

doi:10.1080/13506285.2013.826315

Cited by 60 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Surprisingly, it seems that even Malaysian young adults had difficulty generalizing their perceptual expertise for own-race faces to other-race faces they frequently encountered in a multiracial environment. This adds to a body of evidence indicating that ORB in adulthood is a very robust effect and may not be as malleable as commonly assumed (Tanaka et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…Most laboratory training methods only increase other-race face experience quantitatively via photographic exposure in extensive, intentional face learning tasks, which differ from casual individuating experience with faces from other races in the real world. Although training studies provide an indication regarding the flexibility of ORB as well as the plasticity of face recognition systems (Hills and Lewis, 2006;DeGutis et al, 2011;Hills and Lewis, 2011;Tanaka et al, 2013), the enhancement effect from training studies is often transient (e.g. Hills and Lewis, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society

2020

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The own-race bias (ORB) is a reliable phenomenon across cultural and racial groups where unfamiliar faces from other races are usually remembered more poorly than ownrace faces (Meissner and Brigham, 2001). By adopting a yes-no recognition paradigm, we found that ORB was pronounced across race groups (Malaysian-Malay, Malaysian-Chinese, Malaysian-Indian, and Western-Caucasian) when faces were presented with only internal features (Experiment 1), implying that growing up in a profoundly multiracial society does not necessarily eliminate ORB. Using a procedure identical to Experiment 1, we observed a significantly greater increment in recognition performance for otherrace faces than for own-race faces when the external features (e.g. facial contour and hairline) were presented along with the internal features (Experiment 2)-this abolished ORB. Contrary to assumptions based on the contact hypothesis, participants' self-reported amount of interracial contact on a social contact questionnaire did not significantly predict the magnitude of ORB. Overall, our findings suggest that the level of exposure to other-race faces accounts for only a small part of ORB. In addition, the present results also support the notion that different neural mechanisms may be involved in processing own-and other-race faces, with internal features of own-race faces being processed more effectively, whereas external features dominate representations of other-race faces.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society

2020

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“…The distinction between exposure and individuation is significant because with development, humans become experts at processing faces, and one of the hallmarks of face expertise is the ability to process faces at the specific level of identity (Tanaka et al, 2013). As suggested by Dunham, Baron, and Banaji (2008), since perceptual familiarity generally “breeds” liking, greater exposure to one face category (e.g., own-race faces) over another category (e.g., other-race faces) should lead children to develop more positive attitudes towards the familiar category than the unfamiliar category.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although both of these forms of training involve providing experience with other-race faces, only the individuation training calls upon participants to recognize other-race members as specific individuals (see Lebrecht et al, 2009). The reason that individuation training has been hypothesized to reduce implicit racial bias in adults is that adults are known, by default, to automatically respond to own-race faces at the individual level of identity but other-race faces at the categorical level of race (Ge et al, 2009; Levin, 2000; Liu et al, 2014; Tanaka, Heptonstall, & Hagen, 2013). Consequently, the face recognition system of adults is less well-tuned to the visual features that are diagnostic for individuating other-race faces.…”

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confidence: 99%

Perceptual individuation training (but not mere exposure) reduces implicit racial bias in preschool children.

Qian¹,

Quinn²,

Heyman³

et al. 2017

Developmental Psychology

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Two studies with preschool-age children examined the effectiveness of perceptual individuation training at reducing racial bias (Study 1, N = 32; Study 2, N = 56). We found that training preschool-age children to individuate other-race faces resulted in a reduction in implicit racial bias while mere exposure to other-race faces produced no such effect. We also showed that neither individuation training nor mere exposure reduced explicit racial bias. Theoretically, our findings provide strong evidence for a causal link between individual-level face processing and implicit racial bias, and are consistent with the newly proposed Perceptual-Social Linkage Hypothesis. Practically, our findings suggest that offering children experiences that allow them to increase their expertise in processing individual other-race faces will help reduce their implicit racial bias.

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“…Although previous studies have found that training participants to attend to the individuating features of other‐race faces can reduce the magnitude of the CRE (e.g., Hills & Lewis, ; ; Rhodes, Locke, Ewing, & Evangelista, ), other studies have found CRE instructions (motivation) or individuation training to have limited benefits. For example, Tanaka and Droucker (; cited in Tanaka, Heptonstall, & Hagen, ) reported that individuation instructions had no effect when some perceptual information was held constant (i.e., hairstyle and clothing). Hills and Lewis (; ) found the effects of explicit individuation cues to be time dependent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choosing Your Words and Pictures Wisely: When Do Individuation Instructions Reduce the Cross‐Race Effect?

Pica

Warren

Ross

et al. 2015

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Recognition accuracy for faces of an individual's own race typically exceeds recognition accuracy for other-race faces. The categorization-individuation model (Hugenberg, Young, Bernstein, & Sacco, 2010) attributes this cross-race effect to motivation to encode distinctive features of own-race faces but category defining features for other-race faces. Two experiments using different stimuli tested hypotheses generated from this model with both Black and White participants. For White participants, instructions to individuate reduced the cross-race effect in both studies but did not eliminate it in Study 1. Black participants did not exhibit the cross-race effect in either study, but individuation instructions improved both their same-race and other-race sensitivity. The present quality of interracial contact moderated the relationship between instructions and other-race sensitivity for both Black and White participants in Study 1 but not in Study 2. Overall, results provide mixed support for this social categorization model.

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Perceptual expertise and the plasticity of other-race face recognition

Cited by 60 publications

References 43 publications

The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society

The Own-Race Bias for Face Recognition in a Multiracial Society

Perceptual individuation training (but not mere exposure) reduces implicit racial bias in preschool children.

Choosing Your Words and Pictures Wisely: When Do Individuation Instructions Reduce the Cross‐Race Effect?

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