面孔识别异族效应的研究

异族效应是面孔识别过程中一种非常稳定的现象,表现为对本族面孔的识别与再认成绩显著高于异族面孔.脑成像研究也证实了这两类面孔在神经表征上的差异.关于该效应主要有知觉经验说与社会分类说两种理论解释,但围绕着其心理机制仍然存在着很多争议然,未来的研究需要考虑族群认同等社会-人格因素对于异族效应的影响,并注意考察本族面孔与异族面孔有提取阶段可能存在的神经活动的差异.     

东西方面孔异族效应机理的电生理学证据

采取事件相关电位方法研究东西方面孔记忆编码的差异（DM效应）,从而阐明异族效应的神经机制。14名被试学习和再认东西方面孔照片的实验结果表明,无论记住与否,西方面孔产生的早期成分（潜伏期70~220ms）在头皮额部有一个比东方面孔更为正向的变化,表明在此阶段更多的资源分配于异族面孔,支持异族效应产生的特征选择假说。无论东方面孔还是西方面孔,记住与未记住相比较,则在额部和顶部产生潜伏期在晚期正成分（LPC）范围的正走向变化,但西方面孔在240~320ms潜伏期范围内,DM效应较小。另外,东方面孔在枕部诱发出一个明显的负波N260,而西方面孔产生的N260很小甚至没有,反映了大脑对不同种族面孔的编码机制有所不同,因而可能被称为“种族特异波”     

面孔加工的结构编码阶段异族效应的加工方式： ERPs研究

实验采用事件相关电位（ERPs）技术,以大学生为被试,运用非洲、欧洲、亚洲三个不同种族的面孔照片,探究异族效应与加工方式的关系。行为实验结果显示,被试对非洲面孔的反应时快于欧洲面孔,且两者均快于亚洲面孔。ERP研究结果显示,亚洲面孔的N170波幅显著小于非洲和欧洲面孔的波幅,后两者的N170波幅没有差异,而且亚洲面孔的倒置效应最大。研究结果说明相对于异族面孔,本族面孔更多地使用构型编码的加工方式,且N170成分表现出右半球优势。     

面孔审美加工的神经机制及个体差异

外显和内隐的面孔审美加工的脑成像研究表明,美的面孔比不美的面孔导致眶额皮层、伏隔核、杏仁核等奖赏脑区更大的激活。脑电研究则发现了与面孔审美加工有关的早期负波和晚期正成分。面孔审美加工有关的脑区活动也受到性别、生理周期等个体因素的调节。未来的研究需要比较美的面孔与其它奖赏刺激加工的神经机制,探讨面孔审美加工的不同阶段及时间进程,在面孔知觉的框架下形成合理的面孔审美加工的神经模型。     

面孔识别中脑电成分N170的研究概述

N170是在面孔刺激呈现后的130-200ms记录到的并在160~170ms时达到峰值的一种脑电负成分。目前, 在N170的研究中存在争议性的问题有：N170反映面孔结构编码还是面孔特征编码; N170是否是面孔特异性成分; 以及N170是否受注意的影响等。这些争议也为N170后续研究指明了方向, 即探讨结构编码和特征编码在诱发N170成分上起着怎样的作用; 比较不同熟悉度的刺激材料所诱发的N170反应差异; 探讨N170成分与识别电位间的关系;采用多研究方法的结合从不同层面深入揭示N170的认知机制。     

婴儿面孔种族效应的发展：经验的作用

面孔种族效应是指个体对本族面孔与他族面孔的加工存在差异,即对本族面孔的识别比他族面孔更快速、更准确,而对他族面孔的分类则优于本族面孔。经验是否以及如何影响面孔种族效应的发展,一直是研究者关注的焦点。近十几年,越来越多的学者对婴儿面孔种族效应进行了研究,已有成果主要涉及两个方面：（1）自然条件下婴儿面孔种族效应的出现与发展,即婴儿在面孔种族偏好、识别与分类以及面孔种族加工方式上的变化;（2）训练对婴儿面孔种族效应的影响。未来应丰富研究模式,增强实验材料的生态性,联合新的神经生理技术手段,进一步揭示婴儿经验对面孔种族效应的作用机制。     

面孔识别的本族效应理论述评

面孔识别的本族效应指,个体对本族面孔总是比不熟悉的异族面孔有更好的再认。研究者对该效应提出多种解释。这些理论可分成三大类：侧重于社会认知的接触假说、效用分析;侧重于面孔表征的多维空间理论、整体/部分假说;侧重于加工过程的认知忽视和注意、加工水平说、内群/外群模型、双加工理论。每种观点与其他观点既有区别,又有联系,但均不能很好地解释现有的研究结果。未来的研究需致力于直接操纵可能影响本族效应的因素     

赢分与输分运动员面孔表情和身体姿势情绪的加工机制*

本研究采用中国运动员赢分和输分后的表情, 通过行为学和脑电技术比较面孔表情和身体姿势的加工机制。实验1探讨了赢分与输分面孔和身体的效价和强度, 实验2考察了图片的情绪类型(中性、快乐、悲伤、愤怒、恐惧、厌恶), 实验3采用脑电技术比较了赢分和输分情绪的神经机制。3个实验的行为结果表明, 相比面孔, 身体信息更能区分赢分和输分的效价, 而且身体姿势传递的情绪内容相对单一, 面孔表情传递的情绪内容相对复杂和多样化。脑电实验的结果表明, 身体的情绪信息能更早地被大脑识别, 表现在N170成分上, 面孔表情的情绪效应, 反映在EPN成分上。在加工的晚期, 面孔和身体条件下, 均观测到胜利比失败表情诱发了更大的LPP成分。结果表明, 大脑在多个阶段对身体姿势进行情绪评估与分类, 为行为上身体对效价的高区分性提供了证据。     

幼儿面孔加工异族效应的眼动研究

本研究探究国内生活的幼儿在加工面孔时视觉策略上的异族效应。研究选取了在中国本地生活并且没有与异族个体有过直接接触的幼儿和成人, 完成一个学习和再认本族和异族(高加索白人)面孔的实验, 同时眼动仪记录了他们看面孔时的眼动数据。结果发现：国内生活的幼儿和成人在加工面孔时存在视觉策略上的异族效应, 即幼儿和成人均更多地看本族面孔的鼻子和嘴巴区域而更多看异族面孔的眼睛区域。此外, 相对于成人, 幼儿在加工面孔时, 更倾向于看面孔的眼睛部分, 进行局部加工。本研究结果在一定程度上支持了专家—— 新手理论, 对本族面孔更多的视觉经验将我们塑造成自身物种或种族的面孔加工专家, 从而对本族面孔更多地采取以鼻子为中心的整体化视觉加工策略。     

成人依恋风格在信息加工中表现出差异性的神经机制

依恋风格的神经机制研究有助于更深层次理解依恋行为与类型：N1、N200、N400和P300等脑电成份的差异反映了不同依恋风格在编码、提取及注意资源分配上的不同; 额叶皮层、扣带回皮层、颞极、杏仁核、海马等脑区可以反映不同依恋风格在信息加工性质和注意资源分配上的差异。已有研究除安全依恋和非安全依恋策略的有效性在脑成像上的研究与依恋理论一致外, 其余研究还存在争议。未来的研究可深入探究更高质量的依恋测量工具, 依恋风格对内隐刺激加工影响的认知神经机制; 细化依恋风格在信息加工不同阶段的神经活动和脑成像研究; 以及关注依恋风格对信息加工影响差异的脑机制在临床治疗中的运用。     

The impact of value-directed remembering on the own-race bias

Learners demonstrate superior recognition of faces of their own race or ethnicity, compared to faces of other races or ethnicities; a finding termed the own-race bias. Accounts of the own-race bias differ on whether the effect reflects acquired expertise with own-race faces or enhanced motivation to individuate own-race faces. Learners have previously been motivated to demonstrate increased recall for highly important items through a value-based paradigm, in which item importance is designated using high (vs. low) point values. Learners receive point values by correctly recalling the corresponding items at test, and are given the goal of achieving a high total point score. In two experiments we examined whether a value-based paradigm can motivate learners to differentiate between other-race faces, reducing or eliminating the own-race bias. In Experiment 1, participants studied own- and other-race faces paired with high or low point values. High point values (12-point) indicated that face was highly important to learn, whereas low point values (1-point) indicated that face was less important to learn. Participants demonstrated increased recognition for high-value own-race (but not other-race) faces, suggesting that motivation alone is not enough to reduce the own-race bias. In Experiment 2, we examined whether participants could use value to enhance recognition when permitted to self-pace their study. Recognition did not differ between high-value own- and other-race faces, reducing the own-race bias. Such data suggest that motivation can influence the own-race bias when participants can control encoding.     

知觉经验对面孔整体加工的影响

基于经验的整体加工理论认为, 随着知觉经验的增多, 人们加工面孔的专家化能力逐渐增强。其中一种表现形式为, 在知觉面孔时更倾向于整体加工。该理论已经得到了一些实验证据的支持, 但未能解释另外一些研究的发现, 即对他族人群没有长期知觉经验的被试在加工他族面孔时也有强烈的整体加工。本研究旨在考察知觉经验对面孔整体加工的影响, 包括两个实验。实验1a通过组合面孔范式测量了中国被试在辨别本族面孔、他族面孔和种族融合面孔时的组合面孔效应(即面孔整体加工强度)。结果发现, 被试在知觉种族融合面孔时没有表现出组合面孔效应, 在知觉本族面孔和他族面孔时都表现出强烈的组合面孔效应。实验1b以灰阶图重复了实验1a。结果发现, 被试在知觉种族融合面孔时仍然没有表现出组合面孔效应, 在知觉本族面孔和他族面孔时表现出强烈的组合面孔效应。实验2通过操纵种族融合面孔的有或无, 测量5 s的知觉经验对融合面孔的组合效应的影响。结果发现, 在经过短时的知觉经验后, 被试在知觉融合面孔时也表现出强烈的组合面孔效应。上述实验结果表明, 中国被试在加工本族面孔、他族面孔和种族融合面孔时所诱发组合面孔效应有显著的、量的差别, 且这种整体加工的差异不会受到面孔肤色信息的影响。在经过短时的知觉经验后, 中国被试在加工种族融合面孔时表现出强烈的整体加工。该研究的发现提示, 不论是短时知觉经验还是长期知觉经验, 知觉经验的增加是面孔整体加工的一个关键要素。     

A holistic account of the own-race effect in face recognition: evidence from a cross-cultural study

A robust finding in the cross-cultural research is that people's memories for faces of their own race are superior to their memories for other-race faces. However, the mechanisms underlying the own-race effect have not been well defined. In this study, a holistic explanation was examined in which Caucasian and Asian participants were asked to recognize features of Caucasian and Asian faces presented in isolation and in the whole face. The main finding was that Caucasian participants recognized own-race faces more holistically than Asian faces whereas Asian participants demonstrated holistic recognition for both own-race and other-race faces. The differences in holistic recognition between Caucasian and Asian participants mirrored differences in their relative experience with own-race and other-race faces. These results suggest that the own-race effect may arise from the holistic recognition of faces from a highly familiar racial group.     

Who are you looking at? The influence of face gender on visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces

Previous research suggests that the own-race bias (ORB) in memory for faces is a result of other-race faces receiving less visual attention at encoding. As women typically display an own-gender bias in memory for faces and men do not, we investigated whether face gender and sex of viewer influenced visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces, and if preferential viewing of own-race faces contributed to the ORB in memory. Participants viewed pairs of female or male own- and other-race faces while their viewing time was recorded. Afterwards, they completed a surprise memory test. We found that (1) other-race males received the initial focus of attention, (2) own-race faces were viewed longer than other-race faces over time, although the difference was larger for female faces, and (3) even though longer viewing time increased the probability of remembering a face, it did not explain the magnified ORB in memory for female faces. Importantly, these findings highlight that face gender moderates attentional responses to and memory for own- and other-race faces.     

Who are you looking at? The influence of face gender on visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces

Previous research suggests that the own-race bias (ORB) in memory for faces is a result of other-race faces receiving less visual attention at encoding. As women typically display an own-gender bias in memory for faces and men do not, we investigated whether face gender and sex of viewer influenced visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces, and if preferential viewing of own-race faces contributed to the ORB in memory. Participants viewed pairs of female or male own- and other-race faces while their viewing time was recorded. Afterwards, they completed a surprise memory test. We found that (1) other-race males received the initial focus of attention, (2) own-race faces were viewed longer than other-race faces over time, although the difference was larger for female faces, and (3) even though longer viewing time increased the probability of remembering a face, it did not explain the magnified ORB in memory for female faces. Importantly, these findings highlight that face gender moderates attentional responses to and memory for own- and other-race faces.     

An Investigation of the Contact Hypothesis of the Own-race Bias in Face Recognition

Although previous studies have demonstrated that faces of one's own race are recognized more accurately than are faces of other races, the theoretical basis of this effect is not clearly understood at present. The experiment reported in this paper tested the contact hypothesis of the own-race bias in face recognition using a cross-cultural design. Four groups of subjects were tested for their recognition of distinctive and typical own-race and other-race faces: (1) black Africans who had a high degree of contact with white faces, (2) black Africans who had little or no contact with white faces, (3) white Africans who had a high degree of contact with black faces, and (4) white Britons who had little contact with black faces. The results showed that although on the whole subjects recognized own-race faces more accurately and more confidently than they recognized other-race faces, the own-race bias in face recognition was significantly smaller among the high-contact subjects than it was among the low-contact subjects. Also, although high-contact black and white subjects showed significant main effects of distinctiveness in their recognition of faces of both races, low-contact black and white subjects showed significant main effects of distinctiveness only in their recognition of own-race faces. It is argued that these results support the contact hypothesis of the own-race bias in face recognition and Valentine's multidimensional space (MDS) framework of face encoding.     

Encoding differences affect the number and precision of own-race versus other-race faces stored in visual working memory

Other-race faces are discriminated and recognized less accurately than own-race faces. Despite a wealth of research characterizing this other-race effect (ORE), little is known about the nature of the representations of own-race versus other-race faces. This is because traditional measures of this ORE provide a binary measure of discrimination or recognition (correct/incorrect), failing to capture potential variation in the quality of face representations. We applied a novel continuous-response paradigm to independently measure the number of own-race and other-race face representations stored in visual working memory (VWM) and the precision with which they are stored. Participants reported target own-race or other-race faces on a circular face space that smoothly varied along the dimension of identity. Using probabilistic mixture modeling, we found that following ample encoding time, the ORE is attributable to differences in the probability of a face being maintained in VWM. Reducing encoding time, a manipulation that is more sensitive to encoding limitations, caused a loss of precision or an increase in variability of VWM for other-race but not own-race faces. These results suggest that the ORE is driven by the inefficiency with which other-race faces are rapidly encoded in VWM and provide novel insights about how perceptual experience influences the representation of own-race and other-race faces in VWM.

     

Neural evidence for the contribution of holistic processing but not attention allocation to the other-race effect on face memory

Multiple mechanisms have been suggested to contribute to the other-race effect on face memory, the phenomenon of better memory performance for own-race than other-race faces. Here, two of these mechanisms, increased attention allocation and greater holistic processing during memory encoding for own-race than other-race faces, were tested in two separate experiments. In these experiments event-related potentials were measured during study (the difference due to memory, Dm) and test phase (old/new effects) to examine brain activation related to memory encoding and retrieval, allowing for selective investigations of these memory sub-processes. In Experiment 1, participants studied own-race (Caucasian) and other-race (Chinese) faces under focused or divided attention. In Experiment 2, participants studied own-race (Caucasian) and other-race (African American) faces presented upright or upside down (i.e., inverted). Both experiments showed decreases in memory performance when attention allocation or holistic processing was reduced, but these effects were similar for own-race and other-race faces. Manipulations of holistic processing, but not attention allocation, influenced the neural other-race effects during memory encoding. Inverted own-race faces showed similar neural patterns as upright other-race faces, indicating that when holistic processing of own-race faces was reduced, these faces were encoded similarly as upright other-race faces. No influences of the experimental manipulations on other-race effects during memory retrieval were found. The present study provides the first neural evidence that increased holistic processing during memory encoding contributes to the other-race effect on face memory.     

Perceptual experience shapes our ability to categorize faces by national origin: A new other-race effect

People are better at recognizing own-race than other-race faces. This other-race effect has been argued to be the result of perceptual expertise, whereby face-specific perceptual mechanisms are tuned through experience. We designed new tasks to determine whether other-race effects extend to categorizing faces by national origin. We began by selecting sets of face stimuli for these tasks that are typical in appearance for each of six nations (three Caucasian, three Asian) according to people from those nations (Study 1). Caucasian and Asian participants then categorized these faces by national origin (Study 2). Own-race faces were categorized more accurately than other-race faces. In contrast, Asian American participants, with more extensive other-race experience than the first Asian group, categorized other-race faces better than own-race faces, demonstrating a reversal of the other-race effect. Therefore, other-race effects extend to the ability to categorize faces by national origin, but only if participants have greater perceptual experience with own-race, than other-race faces. Study 3 ruled out non-perceptual accounts by showing that Caucasian and Asian faces were sorted more accurately by own-race than other-race participants, even in a sorting task without any explicit labelling required. Together, our results demonstrate a new other-race effect in sensitivity to national origin of faces that is linked to perceptual expertise.     

Effects of divided attention and social categorization on the own-race bias in face recognition

Perceivers remember own-race faces more accurately than other-race faces (i.e., Own-Race Bias). In the current experiments, we manipulated participants' attentional resources and social group membership to explore their influence on own and other-race face recognition memory. In Experiment 1, Chinese participants viewed own-race and Caucasian faces, and between-subjects we manipulated whether participants attention was divided during face encoding. We found that divided attention eliminated the Own-Race Bias in memory due to a reduction of memory accuracy for own-race faces, implicating that attention allocation plays a role in creating the bias. In Experiment 2, Chinese participants completed an ostensible personality test. Some participants were informed that their personality traits were most commonly found in Caucasian (i.e., other-race) individuals, resulting in these participants sharing a group membership with other-race targets. In contrast, other participants were not told anything about the personality test, resulting in the default own-race group membership. The participants encoded the faces for a subsequent recognition memory test either with or without performing a concurrent arithmetic distracting task. Results showed that other-race group membership and reducing attention during encoding independently eliminated the typical Own-Race Bias in face memory. The implications of these findings on perceptual-expertise and social-categorization models are discussed.