Rapid saccadic categorization of other-race faces

Race categorization in noise

“…While most studies investigating the ORCA have observed mostly reaction time effects (Blais et al, 2008; Caldara et al, 2004; Ge et al, 2009; Liu et al, 2015; Valentine & Endo, 1992; Zhao & Bentin, 2008, 2011), the effects we observed in reaction time were mostly also present in the accuracy analyses. While less robust than reaction time, ORCA accuracy has been observed in a few previous studies (de Lissa et al, 2021; Feng et al, 2011). In the current study, it was hypothesized that if people exhibit enhanced sensitivity to other race visual signals then systematically degrading the visual quality of faces may lead to a point where other race signals remain perceptible while same race signals are not.…”

“…As the effects observed in the current study related to the perception of the race of the stimuli used, it is relevant to consider the possibility that the Chinese identities used as the EA stimuli may have been processed as an other-race or an out-group by the Japanese participants in the current study, though different by degrees to the WC Swiss faces used. A recent study utilizing the very same EA and WC stimuli in both Swiss and Japanese participant samples observed a robust ORCA, exhibiting a cross-cultural interaction when tasked with categorizing the face by race (de Lissa et al, 2021). We can thus rule out the possibility that our current results rely on a specific difference in how the Swiss and Japanese groups perceived in/out group faces.…”

“…Such a consideration is particularly relevant when considering how the perception of “threat” might interact with the perception of race or the specific tasks/instructions given to participants. We did not control for the apparent perception of threat, dominance, attractiveness, etc., instead utilizing face stimuli displaying a neutral facial expression of emotion that had been found to elicit a cross-cultural ORCA interaction in a previous study (de Lissa et al, 2021). However, these dimensions may significantly interact or overlap with the categorization of race by facilitating fast responses, particularly in paradigms involving short presentation times where the extraction of visual features may be impacted due to hierarchical chains of processing from course to fine analysis of face structures/features (Petras et al, 2019).…”

“…The face stimuli consisted of 20 grayscale images of 10 Caucasian and 10 Asian identities (equal number of male and female). The face images were neutral expression portrait photographs of Belgian (WC) and Chinese (EA) students aged from 18 to 25 years, and have been utilized in previous studies investigating same and other race face processing (de Lissa et al, 2021; Michel et al, 2006, 2006). The faces were cropped to exclude ears and hair, and were matched for amplitude spectra, luminance, and contrast using the SHINE toolbox (Willenbockel et al, 2010).…”

“…Trials commenced with a central fixation cross presented for an average of 600 ± 100 ms (jittered), followed by a 200 ms blank screen before a face stimulus was presented for 200 ms before being replaced by a blank screen. The choice of a 200 ms face stimulus presentation duration was guided by the results of a previous study indicating that race categorization can be reliably executed within 200 ms of face presentation (de Lissa et al, 2021). The trial ended when a participant made a key response, which was proceeded by an 800 ± 200 ms (jittered) blank screen.…”