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。     

Holistic face encoding is modulated by perceived face race: Evidence from perceptual adaptation

Human expertise at processing faces relies on how facial features are encoded: as a whole template rather than as a sum of independent features. This holistic encoding is less prominent for other-race faces, possibly accounting for the difficulty one encounters in recognizing these faces (the ‘other-race effect’). Here, we tested the hypothesis that the magnitude of holistic face encoding can be modulated by racial categorization of the face. Caucasian participants performed a face-composite task with ‘racially-ambiguous’ face-stimuli (cross-race morphed faces, equally categorized as Asian or Caucasian faces in an independent task). The perceived race of the ambiguous faces was manipulated using adaptation. Experiment 1 showed that identical morphed face-stimuli were processed more holistically when perceived as ‘same-race’ than as ‘other-race’, i.e., following adaptation to ‘other-race’ versus ‘same-race’, respectively. Experiment 2 ascertained that the determining factor in the observed holistic processing modulation was the race of the racially-ambiguous face as perceived, rather than expected, by the participants, which supports the idea that the holistic processing of the face-stimuli was modulated by their race-categorization at the perceptual level.     

知觉适应对种族融合面孔的种族分类和知觉辨别的影响

面孔加工的种族效应(the other-race effects)指人们对面孔做个体辨别任务时辨别本族面孔的绩效优于辨别他族面孔的绩效, 而做种族分类任务时分类他族面孔的绩效优于分类本族面孔的绩效。本研究通过知觉适应操纵被试对种族两歧(高加索和亚洲)融合面孔的种族知觉, 进而比较被试在两种条件下对同一张融合面孔进行种族分类和知觉辨别的绩效的差异。结果发现, 知觉适应能使被试产生将两歧融合面孔知觉为与原始面孔所属种族相反种族的知觉偏向, 并且, 伴随着这种知觉偏向, 两歧融合面孔的加工出现了他族分类优势和本族辨别优势, 提示社会认知因素对面孔加工的种族效应有重要作用。     

Individuation experience predicts other-race effects in holistic processing for both Caucasian and Black participants

Same-race (SR) faces are recognized better than other-race (OR) faces, and this other-race effect (ORE) is correlated with experience. SR faces are also processed more holistically than OR faces, suggesting one possible mechanism for poorer performance on OR faces. Studies of object expertise have shown that individuating experiences are necessary for holistic processing to develop; yet thus far no studies have investigated the role of quality of experience and the ORE for holistic processing. In the present study, we found a strong negative correlation between a self-report of individuating experience and the ORE in holistic processing in both Caucasian and Black participants, indicating that the more individuating experience a person has, the less ORE in holistic processing. This confirms the critical role of individuating experience in development of holistic processing for faces and suggests that quality of experience is a key determinant of the manner in which OR faces are processed.     

Holistic processing is finely tuned for faces of one's own race

Recognizing individual faces outside one's race poses difficulty, a phenomenon known as the other-race effect. Most researchers agree that this effect results from differential experience with same-race (SR) and other-race (OR) faces. However, the specific processes that develop with visual experience and underlie the other-race effect remain to be clarified. We tested whether the integration of facial features into a whole representation-holistic processing-was larger for SR than OR faces in Caucasians and Asians without life experience with OR faces. For both classes of participants, recognition of the upper half of a composite-face stimulus was more disrupted by the bottom half (the composite-face effect) for SR than OR faces, demonstrating that SR faces are processed more holistically than OR faces. This differential holistic processing for faces of different races, probably a by-product of visual experience, may be a critical factor in the other-race effect.     

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.     

Holistic processing is tuned for in-group faces

Past research has found that mere in-group/out-group categorizations are sufficient to elicit biases in face memory. The current research yields novel evidence that mere social categorization is also sufficient to modulate processes underlying face perception, even for faces for which we have strong perceptual expertise: same-race (SR) faces. Using the composite face paradigm, we find that SR faces categorized as in-group members (i.e., fellow university students) are processed more holistically than are SR faces categorized as out-group members (i.e., students at another university). Hence, holding perceptual expertise with faces constant, categorizing an SR target as an out-group member debilitates the strong holistic processing typically observed for SR faces.     

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.     

Expert face coding: Configural and component coding of own-race and other-race faces

Configural and holistic coding are hallmarks of face perception. Although recent studies have shown that own-race faces are coded more holistically than other-race faces, the evidence for better configural coding of own-race faces is equivocal. We directly measured configural and component coding of own- and other-race male faces in Caucasian and Chinese participants. We manipulated individual features (components) or their spatial relations (configurations) using a novel morphing method to vary difficulty parametrically and tested sensitivity to these changes in a sequential matching task. Both configural and component coding were better for upright own-race than for upright other-race faces. Inversion impaired detection of configural changes more than it did detection of component changes, but also impaired performance more for easier discriminations,independent of type of change. These results challenge explanations of face expertise that rely solely on configural and holistic processing, and also call into question the widespread interpretation of large inversion decrements as diagnostic of configural coding.     

Processes underlying the cross-race effect: an investigation of holistic, featural, and relational processing of own-race versus other-race faces

Adults are often better at recognising own-race than other-race faces. Unlike previous studies that reported an own-race advantage after administering a single test of either holistic processing or of featural and relational processing, we used a cross-over design and multiple tasks to assess differential processing of faces from a familiar race versus a less familiar race. Caucasian and Chinese adults performed four tasks, each with Caucasian and Chinese faces. Two tasks measured holistic processing: the composite face task and the part/whole task. Both tasks indicated holistic processing of own-race and other-race faces that did not differ in degree. Two tasks measured featural and relational processing: the Jane/Ling task, in which same/ different judgments were made about face pairs that differed in features of their spacing, and the scrambled/blurred task, in which test faces were scrambled (isolates memory for components) or blurred (isolates memory for relations). Both tasks provided evidence of an own-race advantage in both featural and relational processing. We conclude that even when adults process other-race faces holistically, other manifestations of an own-race advantage remain.     

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。     

The contribution of shape and surface information in the other-race face effect

Faces from another race are generally more difficult to recognize than faces from one's own race. However, faces provide multiple cues for recognition and it remains unknown what are the relative contribution of these cues to this “other-race effect”. In the current study, we used three-dimensional laser-scanned head models which allowed us to independently manipulate two prominent cues for face recognition: the facial shape morphology and the facial surface properties (texture and colour). In Experiment 1, Asian and Caucasian participants implicitly learned a set of Asian and Caucasian faces that had both shape and surface cues to facial identity. Their recognition of these encoded faces was then tested in an old/new recognition task. For these face stimuli, we found a robust other-race effect: Both groups were more accurate at recognizing own-race than other-race faces. Having established the other-race effect, in Experiment 2 we provided only shape cues for recognition and in Experiment 3 we provided only surface cues for recognition. Caucasian participants continued to show the other-race effect when only shape information was available, whereas Asian participants showed no effect. When only surface information was available, there was a weak pattern for the other-race effect in Asians. Performance was poor in this latter experiment, so this pattern needs to be interpreted with caution. Overall, these findings suggest that Asian and Caucasian participants rely differently on shape and surface cues to recognize own-race faces, and that they continue to use the same cues for other-race faces, which may be suboptimal for these faces.     

The other-race effect: Holistic coding differences and beyond

We evaluate claims that the other-race effect in face memory reflects stronger holistic coding of own-race than other-race faces. Considering evidence from a range of paradigms, including the inversion effect, part–whole effect, composite effect, and the scrambled/blurred task, we find considerable inconsistency, both between paradigms and between participant ethnicities. At the same time, however, studies that isolate configural and component feature processing consistently show better featural, as well as better configural, processing of own-race faces, for both Caucasian and Asian participants. These results raise the possibility that the key feature of own-race face processing is not stronger holistic processing per se, but rather more effective processing of all types of face information (featural as well as holistic).     

Featural processing in face preferences

Two experiments examined how practice and time pressure influence holistic processing, defined as the relative importance of feature interactions, in a face preference task. Participants rated 32 cartoon faces that varied along five dichotomous features (Experiment 1) or 27 realistic morphed faces that varied along three trichotomous dimensions (Experiment 2), under high and low time pressure (operationalized as a short vs. long stimulus presentation time), over a series of experimental blocks. In both experiments, the overall importance of facial features, but not of feature interactions, increased over blocks and, in one condition of Experiment 1, under high vs. low time pressure. Analyses of idiosyncratic importance indicated that the feature effects were due to the increasing importance of participants’ idiosyncratically most influential features. Functional differences between face preferences and face recognition are offered to explain and predict when facial features will be processed independently vs. holistically.     

Systems Factorial Technology provides new insights on the other-race effect

The other-race effect refers to the difficulty of discriminating between faces from ethnic and racial groups other than one’s own. This effect may be caused by a slow, feature-by-feature, analytic process, whereas the discrimination of own-race faces occurs faster and more holistically. However, this distinction has received inconsistent support. To provide a critical test, we employed Systems Factorial Technology (Townsend & Nozawa in Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 39, 321–359, 1995), which is a powerful tool for analyzing the organization of mental networks underlying perceptual processes. We compared Taiwanese participants’ face discriminations of both own-race (Taiwanese woman) and other-race (Caucasian woman) faces according to the faces’ nose-to-mouth separation and eye-to-eye separation. We found evidence for weak holistic processing (parallel processing) coupled with the strong analytic property of a self-terminating stopping rule for own-race faces, in contrast to strong analytic processing (serial self-terminating processing) for other-race faces, supporting the holistic/analytic hypothesis.     

The influence of ingroup/outgroup categorization on same- and other-race face processing: The moderating role of inter- versus intra-racial context

We investigated the impact of ingroup/outgroup categorization on the encoding of same-race and other-race faces presented in inter-racial and intra-racial contexts (Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). White participants performed a same/different matching task on pairs of upright and inverted faces that were either same-race (White) or other-race (Black), and labeled as being from the same university or a different university. In Experiment 1, the same- and other-race faces were intermixed. For other-race faces, participants demonstrated greater configural processing following same- than other-university labeling. Same-race faces showed strong configural coding irrespective of the university labeling. In Experiment 2, faces were blocked by race. Participants demonstrated greater configural processing of same- than other-university faces, but now for both same- and other-race faces. These results demonstrate that other-race face processing is sensitive to non-racial ingroup/outgroup status regardless of racial context, but that the sensitivity of same-race face processing to the same cues depends on the racial context in which targets are encountered.     

Gaze behavior in analytical and holistic face processing

We conducted two experiments examining children's and adults' gaze behavior when processing faces analytically (focusing on a single feature) or holistically (comparing the overall similarity of the faces). Children 6-8 and 9-10 years of age and adults were instructed to assign schematically drawn faces in Experiment 1 and photos of real faces in Experiment 2 to two categories. The categories were constructed so as to allow either an analytical or holistic categorization of the faces. During all trials, gaze behavior was recorded from stimulus onset until reaction. The location and duration of the fixations used were analyzed. Whereas the holistic processors fixated the whole area of the eyes and nose most and longest independently of age, analytical processors showed a more feature-specific gaze behavior, focusing their fixations upon the particular feature used for subsequent processing. Thus, differences in analytical and holistic face processing can be detected early in gaze behavior-that is, at the visual encoding stage.     

Identification of own-race and other-race faces: Implications for the representation of race in face space

Own-race faces are recognized more easily than faces of a different, unfamiliar race. According to the multidimensional space (MDS) framework, the poor discriminability of other-race faces is due to their being more densely clustered in face space than own-race faces. Multidimensional scaling analyses of similarity ratings (Caucasian participants, n = 22) showed that other-race (Chinese) faces are more densely clustered in face space. We applied a formal model to test whether the spatial location of face stimuli could account for identification accuracy of another group of Caucasian participants (n = 30). As expected, own-race (Caucasian) faces were identified more accurately (higher hit rate, lower false alarms, and higher A) than other-race faces, which were more densely clustered than ownrace faces. A quantitative model successfully predicted identification performance from the spatial locations of the stimuli. The results are discussed in relation to the standard MDS account of race effects and also an alternative “race-feature” hypothesis.     

The Influence of Emotional Prediction on the Other-race Effect in Face Recognition

异族效应(other-race effect) 是一种在面孔加工研究领域中被研究者广为熟之的一种社会性知觉现象。具体而言,就是指个体识别异族面孔的成绩显著低于本族面孔。大量的研究证据表明个体在知觉他人的情绪面孔时,会表现出明显的异族面孔效应。但就目前而言,研究者还不了解自上而下的情绪预期(top-down emotional prediction) 是如何影响面孔识别过程中的异族效应。本研究采用线索-目标范式（cue-target）对该问题进行了考察,实验通过操纵“一致试次”的比率,来区分预期 (75% 的“一致”实验试次) 与非预期实验条件 (50% 的“一致”实验试次)。本实验招募28名健康的大学生被试(12名女性,16名男性)参加正式实验,这些被试无精神疾病、情绪障碍、视力缺陷等疾病。实验后,每一名被试都获得一定的实验报酬。实验结果发现,在正性和负性情绪不预期条件下,个体表现出了对异族面孔的识别劣势,即个体识别异族面孔表情的反应时更长。虽然在负性情绪预期条件下,个体仍然表现出了对异族面孔的识别劣势,但在正性情绪预期条件下,个体对异族面孔的这种识别劣势却消失。这些研究结果表明先前的正性面孔情绪预期有效地消除了异族效应。因此,可以认为自上而下的情绪预期可能是一种促进劣势知觉加工的认知管理策略。     

Similarity and difference in the processing of same- and other-race faces as revealed by eye tracking in 4- to 9-month-olds

Fixation duration for same-race (i.e., Asian) and other-race (i.e., Caucasian) female faces by Asian infant participants between 4 and 9 months of age was investigated with an eye-tracking procedure. The age range tested corresponded with prior reports of processing differences between same- and other-race faces observed in behavioral looking time studies, with preference for same-race faces apparent at 3 months of age and recognition memory differences in favor of same-race faces emerging between 3 and 9 months of age. The eye-tracking results revealed both similarity and difference in infants’ processing of own- and other-race faces. There was no overall fixation time difference between same race and other race for the whole face stimuli. In addition, although fixation time was greater for the upper half of the face than for the lower half of the face and trended higher on the right side of the face than on the left side of the face, face race did not impact these effects. However, over the age range tested, there was a gradual decrement in fixation time on the internal features of other-race faces and a maintenance of fixation time on the internal features of same-race faces. Moreover, the decrement in fixation time for the internal features of other-race faces was most prominent on the nose. The findings suggest that (a) same-race preferences may be more readily evidenced in paired comparison testing formats, (b) the behavioral decline in recognition memory for other-race faces corresponds in timing with a decline in fixation on the internal features of other-race faces, and (c) the center of the face (i.e., the nose) is a differential region for processing same- versus other-race faces by Asian infants.