The other-race effect does not rely on memory: Evidence from a matching task

Abstract

Viewers are typically better at remembering faces from their own race than from other races; however, it is not yet established whether this effect is due to memorial or perceptual processes. In this study, UK and Egyptian viewers were given a simultaneous face-matching task, in which the target faces were presented upright or upside down. As with previous research using face memory tasks, participants were worse at matching other-race faces than own-race faces and showed a stronger face inversion effect for own-race faces. However, subjects' performance on own and other-race faces was highly correlated. These data provide strong evidence that difficulty in perceptual encoding of unfamiliar faces contributes substantially to the other-race effect and that accounts based entirely on memory cannot capture the full data. Implications for forensic settings are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Other-race effect
• Face matching

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Grant 000–23–1348 to A.M.B. We are grateful to Stefan Schweinberger for comments on an earlier version of this paper.