The Development of Specialized Processing of Own-Race Faces in Infancy

In this study, we examined developmental changes in infants' processing of own‐ versus other‐race faces. Caucasian American 8‐month‐olds (Experiment 1) and 4‐month‐olds (Experiment 2) were tested in a habituation‐switch procedure designed to assess holistic (attending to the relationship betwee...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Infancy 2009-05, Vol.14 (3), p.263-284
Main Authors: Ferguson, Kim T., Kulkofsky, Sarah, Cashon, Cara H., Casasola, Marianella
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Babies
Blacks
Child Development
Cognitive Processes
Ethnicity
Habituation
Human Body
Infants
Photography
Racial differences
Studies
Task Analysis
Visual Perception
Whites
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Summary:In this study, we examined developmental changes in infants' processing of own‐ versus other‐race faces. Caucasian American 8‐month‐olds (Experiment 1) and 4‐month‐olds (Experiment 2) were tested in a habituation‐switch procedure designed to assess holistic (attending to the relationship between internal and external features of the face) versus featural (attending to individual features of the face) processing of faces. Eight‐month‐olds demonstrated holistic processing of upright own‐race (Caucasian) faces, but featural processing of upright other‐race (African) faces. Inverted faces were processed featurally, regardless of ethnicity. Four‐month‐olds, however, demonstrated holistic processing of both Caucasian and African upright faces. These results demonstrate that infants' processing of own‐ versus other‐race faces becomes specialized between 4 and 8 months.
ISSN:1525-0008
1532-7078
DOI:10.1080/15250000902839369