The other-race effect in face recognition: Perceptual, social-psychological and development insights
type: CreativeWork
description: The other-race effect (ORE) in face recognition refers to poorer recognition of other- than own-race faces. This thesis addresses two overarching questions: what causes the ORE and what are the consequences of the ORE. Concerning the cause(s) of the ORE, two specific questions are addressed: whether social-motivation or perceptual experience (contact) contributes to the ORE; and whether plasticity of face recognition for face subtypes (specific races) is greater in childhood than in adulthood. My first empirical paper (Chapter 3) investigates the ORE for Caucasian and Asian participants (N=480) in an Australian setting where socio-economic status is similar between these groups. Using both the Cambridge Face Memory Task and an old-new recognition task, motivation-to-individuate instructions did not reduce the ORE for Caucasians and Eastern-raised Asians with low interracial contact. Further, Western-raised Asians with high interracial contact showed no ORE. Results imply the cause of the ORE, in this cultural setting, is lack of interracial contact rather than lack of social-motivation. A new dual-route approach is proposed in which two potential causes of the ORE – lack of social-motivation and lack of experience – can contribute differently across varying cultural settings. Another empirical paper (Chapter 5) asks whether the effects of interracial experience arise due to contact in childhood or adulthood, again testing Caucasian and Asian participants (N=373). Correlations with self-reported contact found larger OREs were significantly associated with lower contact during childhood, but not adulthood. That is, adulthood contact was ineffective for improving other-race face recognition. The same pattern is reported for smaller within-race variations in ethnicity. Findings imply that, similar to language, the developmental course of face recognition contains a “sensitive period” of greater plasticity during childhood. A third empirical paper (Chapter 4) addresses t…
abstract: The other-race effect (ORE) in face recognition refers to poorer recognition of other- than own-race faces. This thesis addresses two overarching questions: what causes the ORE and what are the consequences of the ORE. Concerning the cause(s) of the ORE, two specific questions are addressed: whether social-motivation or perceptual experience (contact) contributes to the ORE; and whether plasticity of face recognition for face subtypes (specific races) is greater in childhood than in adulthood. My first empirical paper (Chapter 3) investigates the ORE for Caucasian and Asian participants (N=480) in an Australian setting where socio-economic status is similar between these groups. Using both the Cambridge Face Memory Task and an old-new recognition task, motivation-to-individuate instructions did not reduce the ORE for Caucasians and Eastern-raised Asians with low interracial contact. Further, Western-raised Asians with high interracial contact showed no ORE. Results imply the cause of the ORE, in this cultural setting, is lack of interracial contact rather than lack of social-motivation. A new dual-route approach is proposed in which two potential causes of the ORE – lack of social-motivation and lack of experience – can contribute differently across varying cultural settings. Another empirical paper (Chapter 5) asks whether the effects of interracial experience arise due to contact in childhood or adulthood, again testing Caucasian and Asian participants (N=373). Correlations with self-reported contact found larger OREs were significantly associated with lower contact during childhood, but not adulthood. That is, adulthood contact was ineffective for improving other-race face recognition. The same pattern is reported for smaller within-race variations in ethnicity. Findings imply that, similar to language, the developmental course of face recognition contains a “sensitive period” of greater plasticity during childhood. A third empirical paper (Chapter 4) addresses t…
author: Wan, Lulu
language: en
keywords: Other-race effect, face recognition
date published: 2017
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:19Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/112506