Other-race Effect In Face Processing: Configuration, Feature, Region, Orientation And Time Course

People are generally better at recognize own-race faces better than other-race faces. This phenomenon iscalled the other-race effect (ORE). There is a debate on whether the two types of information in a whole face,“configural” and “featural”, playequallyimportant roles in the ORE. However,beyondthisdebate, multiple linesof evidence have shown that information from different regions of the face (i.e., upper vs. lower) may affect faceprocessing differentially.We have two study to find out the contribution of configural, featural,region informations to the generatingof ORE. In study1using the Face Dimensions Test, we systematically varied the configuration (spacing)between eyes and between eyes and mouth of own-race Chinese faces and other-race Caucasian faces, and thesize of key facial features (eyes and mouth)of the two types of faces. On each trial, when a pair of faces (bothCaucasian or both Chinese) was presented side by side, participants were asked to discriminate between them.Results revealed that (1) the ORE is more pronounced when spacing change was in the upper region (i.e.,distance between two eyes) than in the lower region of the face(i.e., distance between nose and mouth).(2) theORE is more pronounced when featural change was in the upper region(i.e., eye size) than in the lower regionof the face(i.e., mouth size).(3) the ORE is more pronounced when upper region spacing change was in thehorizontal than in the vertical orientation. Following the contribution of space information processing on raceeffect, the time course of the ORE will be explored. In study2we used the configural manipulated faces andfeatural manipulated faces, and made participants discriminate faces while the exposure time is limited in200ms,or400ms, or600ms, or1000ms. Results revealed that ORE in cofigural processing starts between200-400ms,and in featural processing starts before200ms of perception.These findings reveal that (1) the understanding of ORE is not limited to configural and featural informationprocessing, we should pay more attention to the differences of upper and lower region.(2) ORE is a perceptualphenomenon for its generation in early stage of perception.