Other-race effects manifest in overall performance, not qualitative processing style

Stephenie A. HARRISON; Isabel GAUTHIER; William G. HAYWARD; Jennifer J. RICHLER

doi:10.1080/13506285.2014.918912

Other-race effects manifest in overall performance, not qualitative processing style

Stephenie A. HARRISON, Isabel GAUTHIER, William G. HAYWARD, Jennifer J. RICHLER

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

39 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Other-race effects in recognition memory of faces have been well documented: It is often more difficult to recognize other-race (OR) versus same-race (SR) faces (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). However, the mechanisms underlying such effects remain unknown. Recent work has shown that OR and SR faces are processed in the same qualitative manner-both SR and OR faces are processed holistically (Bukach, Cottle, Ubiwa, & Miller, 2012). Here, we manipulate stimulus presentation times to test whether there are quantitative processing differences between OR and SR faces. We found that Caucasian and Asian participants processed both OR and SR faces holistically, but there were differences in overall discrimination ability (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, we observed a similar discrimination advantage for SR faces categorized as belonging to an ingroup versus outgroup (see Hugenberg & Corneille, 2009) but no differences in holistic processing. Together, our results suggest that OR and SR faces differ in the efficiency with which they are encoded and processed, possibly as a consequence of social categorization that discourages individuation of outgroup (and OR) faces.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	843-864
Number of pages	22
Journal	Visual Cognition
Volume	22
Issue number	6
Early online date	9 Jun 2014
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2014.918912
Publication status	Published - Jul 2014
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

The authors thank Apollo Chu, Natalie Chu, Jackie Floyd, Kaleb Lowe, Magen Speegle, Lisa Weinberg, William Wenqiang Yue, and B. K. Zhang, for their assistance with data collection.

Funding

This paper was based on a doctoral dissertation by the first author submitted to Vanderbilt University. This work was supported by NSF [grant number SBE-0542013], VVRC [grant number P30-EY008126], NIH [grant number R01 EY013441-06A2], and a grant [grant number HKU744911] from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.

Keywords

Face recognition
Holistic processing
Other-race effects

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10.1080/13506285.2014.918912

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title = "Other-race effects manifest in overall performance, not qualitative processing style",

abstract = "Other-race effects in recognition memory of faces have been well documented: It is often more difficult to recognize other-race (OR) versus same-race (SR) faces (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). However, the mechanisms underlying such effects remain unknown. Recent work has shown that OR and SR faces are processed in the same qualitative manner-both SR and OR faces are processed holistically (Bukach, Cottle, Ubiwa, & Miller, 2012). Here, we manipulate stimulus presentation times to test whether there are quantitative processing differences between OR and SR faces. We found that Caucasian and Asian participants processed both OR and SR faces holistically, but there were differences in overall discrimination ability (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, we observed a similar discrimination advantage for SR faces categorized as belonging to an ingroup versus outgroup (see Hugenberg & Corneille, 2009) but no differences in holistic processing. Together, our results suggest that OR and SR faces differ in the efficiency with which they are encoded and processed, possibly as a consequence of social categorization that discourages individuation of outgroup (and OR) faces.",

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note = "The authors thank Apollo Chu, Natalie Chu, Jackie Floyd, Kaleb Lowe, Magen Speegle, Lisa Weinberg, William Wenqiang Yue, and B. K. Zhang, for their assistance with data collection.",

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AU - GAUTHIER, Isabel

AU - HAYWARD, William G.

AU - RICHLER, Jennifer J.

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N2 - Other-race effects in recognition memory of faces have been well documented: It is often more difficult to recognize other-race (OR) versus same-race (SR) faces (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). However, the mechanisms underlying such effects remain unknown. Recent work has shown that OR and SR faces are processed in the same qualitative manner-both SR and OR faces are processed holistically (Bukach, Cottle, Ubiwa, & Miller, 2012). Here, we manipulate stimulus presentation times to test whether there are quantitative processing differences between OR and SR faces. We found that Caucasian and Asian participants processed both OR and SR faces holistically, but there were differences in overall discrimination ability (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, we observed a similar discrimination advantage for SR faces categorized as belonging to an ingroup versus outgroup (see Hugenberg & Corneille, 2009) but no differences in holistic processing. Together, our results suggest that OR and SR faces differ in the efficiency with which they are encoded and processed, possibly as a consequence of social categorization that discourages individuation of outgroup (and OR) faces.

AB - Other-race effects in recognition memory of faces have been well documented: It is often more difficult to recognize other-race (OR) versus same-race (SR) faces (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). However, the mechanisms underlying such effects remain unknown. Recent work has shown that OR and SR faces are processed in the same qualitative manner-both SR and OR faces are processed holistically (Bukach, Cottle, Ubiwa, & Miller, 2012). Here, we manipulate stimulus presentation times to test whether there are quantitative processing differences between OR and SR faces. We found that Caucasian and Asian participants processed both OR and SR faces holistically, but there were differences in overall discrimination ability (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, we observed a similar discrimination advantage for SR faces categorized as belonging to an ingroup versus outgroup (see Hugenberg & Corneille, 2009) but no differences in holistic processing. Together, our results suggest that OR and SR faces differ in the efficiency with which they are encoded and processed, possibly as a consequence of social categorization that discourages individuation of outgroup (and OR) faces.

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Other-race effects manifest in overall performance, not qualitative processing style

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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