title: Who are you looking at? The influence of face gender on visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces.
abstract: Previous research suggests that the own-race bias (ORB) in memory for faces is a result of other-race faces receiving less visual attention at encoding. As women typically display an own-gender bias in memory for faces and men do not, we investigated whether face gender and sex of viewer influenced visual attention and memory for own- and other-race faces, and if preferential viewing of own-race faces contributed to the ORB in memory. Participants viewed pairs of female or male own- and other-race faces while their viewing time was recorded. Afterwards, they completed a surprise memory test. We found that (1) other-race males received the initial focus of attention, (2) own-race faces were viewed longer than other-race faces over time, although the difference was larger for female faces, and (3) even though longer viewing time increased the probability of remembering a face, it did not explain the magnified ORB in memory for female faces. Importantly, these findings highlight that face gender moderates attentional responses to and memory for own- and other-race faces.
authors.affiliation: Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. johanna.loven@ki.se
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lovén
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rehnman
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wiens
authors.forename: Torun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lindholm
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Peira
authors.forename: Agneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herlitz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult