Disruptive effect of holistic bias on processing of other-race faces following face categorization

Percept Mot Skills. 2010 Apr;110(2):567-79. doi: 10.2466/PMS.110.2.567-579.

Abstract

Prior work on own-race bias in visual face recognition has considered cognitive and social-cognitive explanations to account for the more efficient recognition of own-race faces as compared to faces of models from other races. One perceptual account with reasonable support suggests that the pattern reflects a cognitive tendency away from holistic processing of other-race faces. The present study engaged participants in an orientation task that provoked either global (holistic) or local (feature) processing prior to a face recognition task. Response latencies suggested that inducing a global processing bias slowed recognition of other-race faces relative to that of own-race faces, whereas inducing a local processing bias led to nearly equal face recognition times for both categories of faces. Furthermore, processing of other-race faces was slower with a global rather than a local processing bias. Results provide converging evidence that own-race faces and other-race faces differ in global analysis received.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Asian People / psychology*
  • Attention*
  • Discrimination Learning
  • Face*
  • Female
  • Field Dependence-Independence
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Recognition, Psychology*
  • Social Identification*
  • White People / psychology*
  • Young Adult