title: Biracial and monoracial infant own-race face perception: an eye tracking study.
abstract: We know that early experience plays a crucial role in the development of face processing, but we know little about how infants learn to distinguish faces from different races, especially for non-Caucasian populations. Moreover, it is unknown whether differential processing of different race faces observed in typically studied monoracial infants extends to biracial infants as well. Thus, we investigated 3-month-old Caucasian, Asian and biracial (Caucasian-Asian) infants' ability to distinguish Caucasian and Asian faces. Infants completed two within-subject, infant-controlled habituation sequences and test trials as an eye tracker recorded looking times and scanning patterns. Examination of individual differences revealed significant positive correlations between own-race novelty preference and scanning frequency between eye and mouth regions of own-race habituation stimuli for Caucasian and Asian infants, suggesting that facility in own-race face discrimination stems from active inspection of internal facial features in these groups. Biracial infants, however, showed the opposite effect: An 'own-race' novelty preference was associated with reduced scanning between eye and mouth regions of 'own-race' habituation stimuli, suggesting that biracial infants use a distinct approach to processing frequently encountered faces. Future directions for investigating face processing development in biracial populations are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tufts University, 490 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA. sarah.gaither@tufts.edu
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Gaither
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pauker
authors.forename: Scott P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015141:Los Angeles; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D044465:White People