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Same-race faces are perceived more holistically than other-race faces

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Michel, Caroline [UCL] Caldara, Roberto Rossion, Bruno [UCL]

People are better at recognizing same-than other-race faces but the theoretical explanation of this phenomenon is still controversial. Here we tested the hypothesis that the "other-race effect'' is related to a reduced ability to encode configural information on other-race faces. Caucasian and Asian participants had to match whole faces to isolated facial features, or onto whole faces differing by a single feature, on both Caucasian and Asian faces. Participants performed better with whole faces as compared to isolated features, demonstrating a "holistic processing'' of faces (Tanaka & Farah, 1993). For Caucasian participants, this "whole/part advantage" was observed only for Caucasian faces. Asian participants who had been living for about a year among Caucasians had a comparable whole/part advantage regardless the race of the faces. These results indicate that same-race faces are processed more holistically than other-race faces, as a result of experience. However, despite processing Caucasian faces as holistically as Asian faces in this paradigm, Asian subjects still presented a large other-race effect. This observation suggests that holistic encoding may be a necessary step in order to be able to recognize other-race faces efficiently, but that it is by no means sufficient to overcome the other-race face effect.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Article de recherche
Publication date 2006
Language Anglais
Journal information "Visual Cognition" - Vol. 14, no. 1, p. 55-73 (2006)
Peer reviewed yes
Publisher Psychology Press ((United Kingdom) Hove)
issn 1350-6285
e-issn 1464-0716
Publication status Publié
Affiliations UCL - PSP/PSP - Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation
UCL - MD/FSIO - Département de physiologie et pharmacologie
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Bibliographic reference Michel, Caroline ; Caldara, Roberto ; Rossion, Bruno. Same-race faces are perceived more holistically than other-race faces. In: Visual Cognition, Vol. 14, no. 1, p. 55-73 (2006)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/110915