RaCe EFfect

Race Effect

IntroDuction

It is a common exPerience that faces from “other races” LooK more similar than faces from “one's own race”. For example, FeinGold (1914) remarked that “to the uninitiated American, all Asiatics look alike, while to the Asiatic, all White men look alike.” The reality of this so-called “other-race effect” has Been confirmed by several experimental studies (seeMeissner & Brigham (2001) for a meta-analysis and Valentine, Chiroro, & Dixon, (1995) for a review). Many experiments have employed an “old-new” recognition paradigm in which participants are shown a set of target faces in a study phase, and have to detect those targets presented among new faces in a subsequent recognition phase (BarkowitZ & Brigham, 1982; Chance, Goldstein, & McBride, 1975; Malpass & Kravitz, 1969; Sheperd, Deregowski, & Ellis, 1974). Another experimental paradigm is the delayed match-to-sample task in which a photograph of a target face is briefly displayed, followed by two photographs, then the subJect tries to select the one matching the target (Lindsay, Jack, & Christian, 1991; Sangrigoli & de Schonen, 2004). The other-race effect is thought to reflect the differential amount of experience that an individual has had with other individuals from various race groups. In adults, evidence for this "experience hypothesis" is conflicting (Furl, Phillips, & O'Toole, 2002; Levin, 2000).

Some studies found that the size of the other-race effect decreases as the amount of experience with faces from other races increases (Brigham, Maas, Snyder, & Spaulding , 1982; Carroo, 1986; Chiroro & Valentine, 1995). In the same vein, some data suggested that training can reduce the other-race effect (Elliott, Wills, & Goldstein, 1973; Goldstein & Chance, 1985). Yet, other studies found that the amplitude of the other-race effect is not modulated by differential experience (Luce, 1974; Malpass & Kravitz, 1969; Ng & Lindsay, 1994).

Review of Literature

While the results of the above experiments, obtained with adults, are not consistent, a few studies with children and adolescents support the “experience hypothesis” (Shepherd,1981). Cross, Cross and Daly (1971) and Feinman and Entwhistle (1976) found a larger other-race effect in children and adolescents living in segregated neighborhoods than in those living in integrated neighborhoods in the USA. The age at which experience with another race group has started may be a crucial factor in determining the face discrimination abilities. Childhood might be a "sensitive period" beyond which the effect of experience on face recognition might be markedly reduced.

Studies investigating the age at which the other-race effect emerges are scarce. In a study by Chance, Turner and Goldstein (1982), 7 to 20 year-old Caucasian children showed superior accuracy with Caucasian than with Asiatic faces while 6 years olds did not. The absence of the race effect for 6 years old children is not clear: more recently, Pezdek, Blandon-Gitlin and Moore (2003) found the other-race effect in 5- and 8-year-old White or Black children. Sangrigoli and de Schonen (2004) assessed the face recognition abilities of 3-to 5-year-old Caucasian children. The stimuli were photographs of Caucasian and Asiatic faces used in a previous ...