ABSTRACT
Objective:To examine the relationship between cross-ethnic friendship and cross-ethnic face perceptual memory in the regions where the population ratios of the Uygurs and the Hans are different.Methods:According to demographic criteria,33 Han college students with lower contact with Uygurs from the area where Uygur and Han population ratio was 1 ∶ 9,32 Uygur college students with lower contact with Hans from the area where Uygur and Han population ratio was 9∶1,and 32 Uygur with higher contact with Hans and 34 Han students with higher contact with Uygurs from the area where Uygur and Han population ratio was 4∶6 were recruited in the study.Relying on E-prime program,the learning-recognition paradigm was adopted to compare the difference between the participants'recognition for faces of one's own race and others.Meanwhile,based on self-reported Friendship Quality Questionnaires,participants'Time Spent and Intimacy with out-group friends were assessed as the measurement of inter-group friendship.Results:The accurate rate,false alarm rate and discrimination accuracy demonstrated a significant own-race advantage for the Uygurs with lower contact and higher contact with the Hans (Ps ＜ 0.01),whereas the Hans with higher contact and lower contact with the Uygurs did not show significant difference between own-race faces and other-race faces on these variables (Ps ＞ 0.05).Stepwise regression analysis showed that the regression coefficients of the interracial intimacy and time spent with out-group friends toward the magnitude of crossrace effect were stably significant (β =-0.87,-0.56,Ps ＜ 0.01).Conclusion:The Uygur and Han students may prefer different encoding strategies in face recognition,and inter-group friendship experience may be an appropriate variable for predicting the ability to recognize other-race faces with good reliability and validity.