Own-race and own-university biases in eye movements for face processing R Cooper, S Kennett |
|---|
Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex, United Kingdom
|
| The well documented own-race bias in face recognition (Goldinger, He & Papesh, 2009, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 35(5), 1105-1122) is explained either by perception (viewers’ lower perceptual expertise for the physiognomy of other-race faces) or social cognition (viewers’ motivations vary across in- and out-group faces; Young, Hugenberg, Bernstein & Sacco, 2012, Personality and Social Psychology Review, 16(2), 1-27). Only social cognition can explain other face recognition biases where groups do not differ physically (e.g., own-university). The degree that social cognition and perception combine to explain the own-race bias is assessed by comparing eye movements leading to the own-university versus own-race bias. Our students completed two face recognition tests using faces of own/other race and own/other university. All faces were previously unknown and were labelled own/other university randomly. Patterns of recognition accuracy confirm the previously reported own-race and own-university biases. Previously untested, differences in eye movements and pupil size were observed for own- and other-university faces. Importantly, patterns of eye-position revealed some bias-specific differences. However, common patterns across both biases of own-group dependent eye movements provide an index of non-perceptual mechanisms shared by these two own-group recognition biases. |
| Up Home |
|---|