The effects of different presentation methods on multi-ethnicity face recognition

Abstract

Two experiments are reported that examine the effect on later recognition of presenting simultaneously several targets of different ethnicity. In experiment 1, a novel target presentation method was used where participants (children, n=65 and young adults, n=62) were shown a stimulus face sheet of four different race faces followed by a sequential larger (target present/absent) multi-ethnic recognition set. In experiment 2 three different sequential presentation methods were compared in young adults (n=225) that consisted of either (i) make decision (‘seen before’ vs ‘not seen before’) for each of the faces in the whole sequential recognition set; or (ii) make only ‘seen before’ decisions for the whole sequential recognition set; or (iii) a separate sequential lineup for each ethnicity where for each lineup the participants saw all the faces in that lineup and then had to make a decision (target present or absent). Own-race faces were more often correctly rejected (and less falsely identified in experiment 2) than other-race faces. For other-race faces, correct recognition decreased when similar foils were presented before targets in the recognition set but this did not occur for own-race faces. The effect of sequential lineup presentation method emerged for other-race faces favouring separate ethnicity lineups.

Keywords:

• cross-race effect
• face recognition
• lineups
• multiple choices

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Siegfried L. Sporer (University of Giessen) and to Juergen Gehrke (University of Leicester) for their help during the course of this research, and to the children and young adults, their head teachers and staff of high schools in Antsla, P[otilde]lva, Otepää, and Tallinn.