Race-based perceptual asymmetries underlying face processing in infancy |
| |
Authors: | Angela Hayden Ramesh S Bhatt Nicole Zieber Ashley Kangas |
| |
Institution: | 1. Psychology Department, University of Kentucky, 40506-0044, Lexington, KY
|
| |
Abstract: | Adults process other-race faces differently than own-race faces. For instance, a single other-race face in an array of own-race
faces attracts Caucasians’ attention, but a single own-race face among other-race faces does not. This perceptual asymmetry
has been explained by the presence of an other-race feature in other-race faces and its absence in own-race faces; this difference is thought to underlie race-based differences
in face processing. We examined the developmental origins of this mechanism in two groups of Caucasian 9-month-olds. Infants
in the experimental group exhibited a preference for a pattern containing a single Asian face among seven Caucasian faces
over a pattern containing a single Caucasian face among seven Asian faces. This preference was not driven by the majority
of elements in the images, because a control group of infants failed to exhibit a preference between homogeneous patterns
containing eight Caucasian versus eight Asian faces. The results demonstrate that an other-race face among own-race faces
attracts infants’ attention but not vice versa. This perceptual asymmetry suggests that the other-race feature is available
to Caucasians by 9 months of age, thereby indicating that mechanisms of specialization in face processing originate early
in life. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|