The other-race effect: Holistic coding differences and beyond |
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Authors: | William G Hayward Kate Crookes Gillian Rhodes |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong;2. ARC Centre of Excellence for Cognition and Its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australiawhayward@hku.hk;4. ARC Centre of Excellence for Cognition and Its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia |
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Abstract: | 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). |
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Keywords: | Other-race effect Holistic processing Featural processing |
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