Lifetime perceptual experience shapes face memory for own- and other-race faces

The other-ethnicity effect in facial recognition of Tibetan and Han individuals: Evidence from behavioural and eye-movement data

Studies have shown that facial recognition among racial groups exhibits not only an other-race effect but also an other-ethnicity effect within the same racial group. To explore differences in facial recognition and visual scanning patterns due to the other-ethnicity effect, behavioural and eye-movement data were used to investigate the other-ethnicity effect in the facial perception of Tibetan and Han Chinese individuals and whether the visual scanning patterns varied between them. Behavioural data revealed an other-ethnicity effect on facial recognition of Tibetan and Han individuals. Eye-movement data indicated that Tibetan and Han individuals fixated more on the eye and mouth regions when recognising Han faces and on the eye and nose regions when recognising Tibetan faces. The other-ethnicity effect appeared to influence facial recognition in Tibetan and Han individuals, who adopted similar visual scanning patterns when scanning the faces of individuals of their own ethnicity and those of other ethnicities.

Community diversity and the other-race effect in infancy

The other-race effect (ORE) is characterized by processing advantages for faces of one's own race over faces of another race and is observed at ~9 months of age. Environmental exposure to other races has an impact on the development of the ORE. In the current study, we examined the effects of community racial diversity on the ORE in 9- to 12-month-olds from across the United States. We hypothesized that community racial diversity would influence the amount of experience that infants have with individuals of other races and be an important factor in predicting the ORE across broad regions of the United States. We predicted that infants from more diverse communities would demonstrate successful processing of own- and other-race faces, while infants from less diverse communities would demonstrate successful processing of own-race but not other-race faces. This would indicate that the ORE is exhibited more strongly in infants from less diverse communities than in infants from more diverse communities. Participants completed familiarization and visual paired comparison (VPC) trials with own- and other-race faces in an online study. Our results showed that although the ORE was present, the effect was driven by community members who were the racial majority. Recognition biases were not observed in community racial or ethnic minority participants, potentially due to increased exposure to racial out-group members, which mitigated the development of the ORE in this subset of participants. This study has far-reaching implications in the study of infant face perception, child development, and social justice, as the ORE develops at a young age, and may lead to a complex pattern of racial biases contributing to systemic barriers in society.

Age Weakens the Other-Race Effect among Han Subjects in Recognizing Own- and Other-Ethnicity Faces

The development and change in the other-race effect (ORE) in different age groups have always been a focus of researchers. Previous studies have mainly focused on the influence of maturity of life (from infancy to early adulthood) on the ORE, while few researchers have explored the ORE in older people. Therefore, this study used behavioral and eye movement techniques to explore the influence of age on the ORE and the visual scanning pattern of Han subjects recognizing own- and other-ethnicity faces. All participants were asked to complete a study-recognition task for faces, and the behavioral results showed that the ORE of elderly Han subjects was significantly lower than that of young Han subjects. The results of eye movement showed that there were significant differences in the visual scanning pattern of young subjects in recognizing the faces of individuals of their own ethnicity and other ethnicities, which were mainly reflected in the differences in looking at the nose and mouth, while the differences were reduced in the elderly subjects. The elderly subjects used similar scanning patterns to recognize the own- and other-ethnicity faces. This indicates that as age increases, the ORE of older people in recognizing faces of those from different ethnic groups becomes weaker, and elderly subjects have more similar visual scanning patterns in recognizing faces of their own and other ethnicities.

Face processing in the infant brain after pandemic lockdown

The role of visual experience in the development of face processing has long been debated. We present a new angle on this question through a serendipitous study that cannot easily be repeated. Infants viewed short blocks of faces during fMRI in a repetition suppression task. The same identity was presented multiple times in half of the blocks (repeat condition) and different identities were presented once each in the other half (novel condition). In adults, the fusiform face area (FFA) tends to show greater neural activity for novel versus repeat blocks in such designs, suggesting that it can distinguish same versus different face identities. As part of an ongoing study, we collected data before the COVID-19 pandemic and after an initial local lockdown was lifted. The resulting sample of 12 infants (9-24 months) divided equally into pre- and post-lockdown groups with matching ages and data quantity/quality. The groups had strikingly different FFA responses: pre-lockdown infants showed repetition suppression (novel > repeat), whereas post-lockdown infants showed the opposite (repeat > novel), often referred to as repetition enhancement. These findings provide speculative evidence that altered visual experience during the lockdown, or other correlated environmental changes, may have affected face processing in the infant brain.

Criminality labelling influences reactions to others' pain

Disparities in healthcare for underrepresented and stigmatized groups are well documented. Current understanding is that these inequalities arise, at least in part, from psychosocial factors such as stereotypes and in-group/out-group categorization. Pain management, perhaps because of the subjective nature of pain, is one area of research that has spearheaded these efforts. We investigated how observers react to the pain of individuals labelled as criminals. Face models expressing pain of different levels of intensity were portrayed as having committed a crime or not (control group). A sample of n = 327 college students were asked to estimate the intensity of the pain expressed by face models as well as their willingness to help them. Trait empathy was also measured. Data was analyzed using regression, mediation and moderation analyses. We show for the first time that observers were less willing to help individuals with a criminal history. Moreover, a moderation effect was observed whereby empathic participants were more willing to help control face models compared to less empathic participants. However, criminality history did not influence participant's pain estimation. We conclude that negative stereotypes associated with criminality can reduce willingness to help individuals in pain even when pain signals are accurately perceived.

The importance of internal and external features in recognizing faces that vary in familiarity and race

Familiar and unfamiliar faces are recognized in fundamentally different ways. One way in which recognition differs is in terms of the features that facilitate recognition: previous studies have shown that familiar face recognition depends more on internal facial features (i.e., eyes, nose and mouth), whereas unfamiliar face recognition depends more on external facial features (i.e., hair, ears and contour). However, very few studies have examined the recognition of faces that vary in both familiarity and race, and the reliance on different facial features, whilst also using faces that incorporate natural within-person variability. In the current study, we used an online version of the card sorting task to assess adults' (n = 258) recognition of faces that varied in familiarity and race when presented with either the whole face, internal features only, or external features only. Adults better recognized familiar faces than unfamiliar faces in both the whole face and the internal features only conditions, but not in the external features only condition. Reasons why adults did not show an own-race advantage in recognition are discussed.

Multi-cultural cities reduce disadvantages in recognizing naturalistic images of other-race faces: evidence from a novel face learning task

People often find it more difficult to recognize other- than own-race faces. This other-race effect is robust across numerous ethnic groups. Yet, it remains unclear how this effect changes in people who live in a multiracial environment, and in immigrants whose lifetime perceptual experience changes over time. In the present study, we developed a novel face recognition test that approximates face recognition in the real world. We tested five groups of White and East Asian adults (n = 120) living in racially homogeneous versus heterogeneous cities and East Asians who immigrated to a multiracial city between infancy and adulthood. Multiracial cities reduce the other-race effect. The magnitude of the other-race effect changes as a function of experience, mirroring the racial diversity in perceivers' living environment. Our study highlights the challenge of forming reliable face representations across naturalistic facial variability and suggests a facilitative role of multiracial environments in eliminating the other-race effect.

A developmental investigation of the other-race categorization advantage in a multiracial population: Contrasting social categorization and perceptual expertise accounts

Most prior studies of the other-race categorization advantage have been conducted in predominantly monoracial societies. This limitation has left open the question of whether tendencies to more rapidly and accurately categorize other-race faces reflect social categorization (own-race vs. other-race) or perceptual expertise (frequent exposure vs. infrequent exposure). To address this question, we tested Malay and Malaysian Chinese children (9- and 10-year-olds) and adults on (a) own-race faces (i.e., Malay faces for Malay participants and Chinese faces for Malaysian Chinese participants), (b) high-frequency other-race faces (i.e., Chinese faces for Malay participants and Malay faces for Malaysian Chinese participants), and (c) low-frequency other-race faces (i.e., Caucasian faces). Whereas the other-race categorization advantage was in evidence in the accuracy data of Malay adults, other aspects of performance were supportive of either the social categorization or perceptual expertise accounts and were dependent on the race (Malay vs. Chinese) or age (child vs. adult) of the participants. Of particular significance is the finding that Malaysian Chinese children and adults categorized own-race Chinese faces more rapidly than high-frequency other-race Malay faces. Thus, in accord with a perceptual expertise account, the other-race categorization advantage seems to be more an advantage for racial categories of lesser experience regardless of whether these face categories are own-race or other-race.