Ethnic categorisation of faces is not independent of face identity.
Is the extraction of a visually derived semantic code from faces (ethnicity) affected by face identity (familiarity) or not? The traditional view considers that this operation is made independently of face identity, and in parallel with the recognition of identity. However, some recent studies cast doubt on this parallel thesis regarding other visually derived semantic codes, namely: facial expression, facial speech, apparent age, and gender. Twenty-eight Caucasian participants were enrolled in an 'ethnic-decision' task on morphed faces made of an Asiatic source face and a Caucasian source face, in the proportion of 70%-30%. Half of the original faces were previously made familiar by a learning procedure (associating the face, surname, occupation, and city of residence of the person displayed), while the remaining half were unfamiliar. The results showed clearly that ethnic decision was affected by face familiarity. This adds support to the thesis according to which the identification of identity and the extraction of visually derived semantic codes are not made independently from each other and that the 'parallel-route' hypothesis becomes weakly supported.
Bruyer
Raymond
R
Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit (NESC), Department of Psychology, University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Place du Cardinal Mercier 10, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. raymond.bruyer@psp.ucl.ac.be
Leclere
Stéphanie
S
Quinet
Pascal
P
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D044469:Racial Groups; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D044465:White People