Neural Processing of Other-Race Faces as a Function of Racial Familiarity: A P300 Study

  • Authors

    • Tai Yan Shan
    • Faruque Reza
    • Tahamina Begum
    • Nasir Yusoff
    2018-08-08
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i3.22.17116
  • P300, ORE, ORCA, Neural Processing, Odd-ball paradigm

  • Background: The other-race categorisation advantage (ORCA) is a well-established phenomenon, whereby other-race faces are categorised faster than own race faces. Objectives: This study investigated whether extraverts would demonstrate an ORCA-like effect toward unfamiliar other-race faces and familiar other-race faces in a modified oddball and choice reaction paradigm.  Methods: This event-related potential (ERP) study employed a repeated measures experimental design with one independent variable (racial familiarity) and three levels (familiar other-race/Malay faces, unfamiliar other-race/African faces, control group/furniture photos). In the oddball task, African faces and Malay faces were the target stimuli and furniture photos were the standard stimuli. Electroencephalography data (EEG) was collected during the oddball task, from which ERP components were derived. Results: The reaction time (RT) for African and Malay faces were not significantly different.  Significant effect of racial familiarity on P300 latencies at all electrode sites was not observed.  However, there was a significant effect of racial familiarity on P300 amplitudes at midline electrodes (Cz).  It was also observed that the P300 amplitude was larger for African faces than Malay faces at midline electrodes (Cz). Conclusion: An ORCA-like effect was not found in categorisation tasks involving faces from a familiar and an unfamiliar other-race, but a larger P300 amplitude was evoked by African faces. This dissociation between RT and P300 amplitude provided important theoretical implications with regard to models associated with ORCA. Specifically, the current findings lent support to the social cognition model and the Categorisation-Individuation Model (CIM).

  • References

    1. [1] G. Anzures, P.C. Quinn, O. Pascalis, Developmental origins of the other-race effects, Current Directions in Psychological Science 22 (2013) 173-178. Available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3773883/

      [2] C.A. Meissner, J.C. Brigham, Thirty years of investigating the own-race bias in memory for faces: a meta-analytic review, Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 7(1) (2001) 3-35.

      [3] D.T. Levin, Classifying faces by race: the structure of face categories, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 22(6) (1996) 1364-1382. Available online: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/52ae/adc28b2625259e6b419a2add505cd1254b95.pdf

      [4] D.T. Levin, Race as a visual feature: using visual search and perceptual discrimination tasks to understand face categories and the cross-race recognition deficit, Journal of Experimental Psychology. General 129(4) (2000) 559-574.

      [5] J. Lv, T. Yan, L. Tao, L. Zhao, The role of configural processing in face classification by race: an ERP study, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 9 (2015) 679. Available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4685067/

      [6] G. Sun, G. Zhang, Y. Yang, S. Bentin, L Zhao, Mapping the time course of other-race face classification advantage: a cross-race ERP study, Brain Topography 27(5) (2014) 663-671.

      [7] L. Ge, H. Zhang, Z. Wang, et al., Two faces of the other-race effect: recognition and categorisation of Caucasian and Chinese faces 38(8) 2009 1199-1210.

      [8] J. Liu, Z. Wang, L. Feng, J. Li, J. Tian, K. Lee, Neural trade-offs between recognizing and categorizing own- and other-race faces, Cerebral Cortex 25(8) (2015) 2191-2203. Available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4494030/

      [9] J. Stahl, H. Wiese, S.R. Schweinberger, Expertise and own-race bias in face processing: an event-related potential study, Neuroreport 19(5) (2008) 583-587.

      [10] J.W. Tanaka, M. Kiefer, C.M. Bukach, A holistic account of the own-race effect in face recognition: evidence from a cross-cultural study, Cognition 93(1) (2004) B1-B9.

      [11] B. Roisson, C. Michel, An experience-based holistic account of the other-race face effect, Oxford Handbook of Face Perception. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2011; 517-533.

      [12] L. Zhao, S. Bentin, The role of features and configural processing in face-race classification, Vision Research 51 (2011) 2462-2470.

      [13] K.J. Hancock, G. Rhodes, Contact, configural coding and the other-race effect in face recognition, British Journal of Psychology 99(Pt 1) (2008) 45-46.

      [14] K. Hugenberg, S.G. Young, M.J. Bernstein, D.F. Sacco, The categorization-individuation model: an integrative account of the other-race recognition deficit 117(4) (2010) 1168-1187.

      [15] M.J. Rodin, Who is memorable to whom: a study of cognitive disregard, Social Cognition 5(2) (1987) 144-165.

      [16] E. Hehman, E.W. Mania, S.L. Gaertner, Where the division lies: common ingroup identity moderates the cross-race facial-recognition effect, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46(2) (2010) 445-448.

      [17] M.J. Bernstein, S.G. Young, K. Hugenberg, The cross-category effect: Mere social categorisation is sufficient to elicit an own-group bias in face recognition, Psychological Science 18(8) (2007) 706-712.

      [18] N.O. Rule, J.V. Garrett, N. Ambady, Places and faces: geographic environment influences ingroup memory advantage, Attitudes and Social Cognition 98(3) (2010) 343-355.

      [19] J. Cloutier, M.F. Mason, C.N. Macrae, The perceptual determinants of person construal: reopening the social-cognitive toolbox, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88(6) (2005) 885-894.

      [20] D.E. Linden, The P300: where in the brain is it produced and what does it tell us? Neuroscientist 11(6) (2005) 563-576.

      [21] S. Sutton, M. Braren, J. Zubin, E.R. John, Evoked-potential correlates of stimulus uncertainty, Science 150(1700) (1965) 1187-1188.

      [22] J.L. Andreassi, Psychophysiology: Human Behaviour and Physiological Response (5th ed.), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London, 2007.

      [23] E. Donchin, M.G.H. Coles, Is the P300 component a manifestation of context updating? Behavioural Brain Science 11 (1988) 357-374.

      [24] J. Polich, Updating P300: an integrative theory of P3a and P3b, Clinical Neurophysiology 118(10) (2007) 2128-2148. Available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/17573239/

      [25] T.A. Ito, G.R. Urland, Race and gender on the brain: electrocortical measure of attention to the race and gender of multiply categorizable individuals, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85(4) (2003) 616-626.

      [26] Z. Liu, Q. Zhang, Y. Li, Y. Du, W. Dong, L. Zhao, The role of featural processing in other-race face classification advantage: an ERP study, Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 13(3) (2014) 435-446.

      [27] L.J. Otten, E. Donchin, Relationship between P300 amplitude and subsequent recall for distinctive events: dependence on type of distinctiveness attribute, Psychophysiology 37 (2000) 644-661.

      [28] V. Kanapathy, Malaysia, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 17(3-4) (2008) 335-347.

      [29] C.B.Y. Tan, I.D. Stephen, R. Whitehead, E. Sheppard, You look familiar: how Malaysian Chinese recognise faces, PLoS ONE 7(1) (2012) e29714.

      [30] J. Epstein. World domination by box office cinema admissions. https://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2011/07/world-domination-by-box-office-cinema-admissions/. Revised July 2011. Accessed February, 2017.

      [31] S.L. Smith, M. Choueiti, K. Pieper, Inequality in 800 popular films: examining portrayals of gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT, and disability from 2007-2015 (Unpublished manuscript), School of Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, 2016.

      [32] Department of Statistics. Population Distribution and Basic Demographic Characteristics 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20110830200524/http://www.statistics.gov.my/portal/download_Population/files/census2010/Taburan_Penduduk_dan_Ciri-ciri_Asas_Demografi.pdf. Revised June 2011. Accessed February, 2017.

      [33] F. Faul, E. Erdfelder, A-G. Lang, A. Buchner, G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioural, and biomedical sciences, Behaviour Research Methods 39 (2007) 175-191. Available online: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758%2FBF03193146.pdf

      [34] H. Wu, L. Luo, J. Dai, S. Yang, N. Wang, Y. Luo, Event-related potential responses to beloved and familiar faces in different marriage styles: evidence from Mosuo subjects, Frontiers in Psychology 7 (2016) 159. Available online: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4756119/

      [35] P. Tacikowski, K. Jednoróg, A. Marchewka, A. Nowicka, How multiple repetitions influence the processing of self-, famous and unknown names and faces: an ERP study, International Journal of Psychophysiology 79(2) (2011) 219-230.

      [36] N. Tottenham, J.W. Tanaka, A.C. Leon, T. McCarry, M. Nurse, T.A. Hare, et al., The NimStim set of facial expressions: judgments from untrained research participants, Psychiatry Research 168(3) (2009) 242-249.

      [37] N. Wild-Wall, O. Dimigen, W. Sommer, Interaction of facial expressions and familiarity: ERP evidence, Biological Psychology 77 (2008) 242-249.

      [38] E.S. Dan-Glauser, K.R. Scherer, The Geneva affective picture database (GAPED): a new 730-picture database focusing on valence and normative significance, Behaviour Research Methods 43(2) (2011) 468-477. Available online: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758%2Fs13428-011-0064-1.pdf

      [39] P.C. Quinn, K. Lee, O. Pascalis, J.W. Tanaka, Narrowing in categorical responding to other-race face classes by infants, Developmental Science 19(3) (2016) 362-371.

      [40] L. Zhao, S. Bentin, Own- and other-race categorisation of faces by race, gender, and age, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 15(6) (2008) 1093-1099.

      [41] C.R. Jones, R.H. Fazio, Person categorisation and automatic racial stereotyping effects on weapon identification, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(8) (2010) 1073-1085.

      [42] P.G. Devine, Stereotypes and prejudice: their automatic and controlled components, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56(1) (1989) 5-18. Available online: http://web.comhem.se/u52239948/08/devine89.pdf

      [43] R. Johnson Jr, On the neural generators of the P300 component of the event-related potential, Psychophysiology 30(1) (1993) 90-97.

      [44] J. Katayama, J. Polich, Auditory and visual P300 topography from a 3 stimulus paradigm, Clinical Neurophysiology 110(3) (1999) 463-468.

      [45] G. Rhodes, W.G. Hayward, C. Winkler, Expert face coding: configural and component coding of own-race and other-race faces, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 13(3) (2006) 499-505.

      [46] Z. Wang, P.C. Quinn, J.W. Tanaka, et al., An other-face effect for configural and featural processing of faces: upper and lower face regions play different roles, Frontiers in Psychology 6 (2015) 559

  • Downloads

  • How to Cite

    Yan Shan, T., Reza, F., Begum, T., & Yusoff, N. (2018). Neural Processing of Other-Race Faces as a Function of Racial Familiarity: A P300 Study. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(3.22), 21-26. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i3.22.17116