Nonlinear relationships between eye gaze and recognition accuracy for ethnic ingroup and outgroup faces.

Researchers have used eye-tracking measures to explore the relationship between face encoding and recognition, including the impact of ethnicity on this relationship. Previous studies offer a variety of conflicting conclusions. This confusion may stem from misestimation of the relationship between encoding and recognition. First, most previous models fail to account for the structure of eye-tracking data, potentially falling prey to Simpson's paradox. Second, previous models assume a linear relationship between attention (e.g., the number of fixations to a to-be-remembered face) and recognition accuracy. Two eye-tracking studies (Ns = 41, 59), one online experiment that manipulates exposure (N = 150), and a mega-analysis examine the effects of ethnicity using what we believe to be more appropriate analytical models. Across studies and measures, we document a novel, critical pattern: The relationship between attention and recognition is nonlinear and negatively accelerating. At low levels of baseline attention, a small increment in attention improves recognition. However, as attention increases further, increments yield smaller and smaller benefits. This finding parallels work in learning and memory. In models that allow for nonlinearity, we find evidence that central features (eyes, nose, and mouth) generally contribute to recognition accuracy, potentially resolving disagreements in the field. We also find that the effects of attention on recognition are similar for ingroup and outgroup faces, which have important implications for theories of perceptual expertise. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the Contribution of Physical Cues for Same- and Cross-Race Face Individuation.

Face individuation involves sensitivity to physical characteristics that provide information about identity. We examined whether Black and White American faces differ in terms of individuating information, and whether Black and White perceivers differentially weight information when judging same-race and cross-race faces. Study 1 analyzed 20 structural metrics (e.g., eye width, nose length) of 158 Black and White faces to determine which differentiate faces within each group. High-utility metrics (e.g., nose length, eye height, chin length) differentiated faces of both groups, low-utility metrics (e.g., face width, eye width, face length) offered less individuating information. Study 2 (N = 4,510) explored Black and White participants' sensitivity to variation on structural metrics using similarity ratings. High-utility metrics affected perceived dissimilarity more than low-utility metrics. This relationship was non-significantly stronger for same-race faces rather than cross-race faces. Perceivers also relied more on features that were racially stereotypic of the faces they were rating.

Face templates for the Chicago Face Database.

Researchers often need to manipulate faces, such as developing a continuum between two faces or averaging a set of faces. In order to do so, researchers use morphing software, but they first need to fit a template to the idiosyncratic landmarks in each face. In this paper, we present a set of landmark templates for the Chicago Face Database (CFD; Ma, D. S., Correll, J., & Wittenbrink, B. (2015). The Chicago Face Database: A free stimulus set of faces and norming data. Behavior Research Methods, 47(4), 1122-1135). The CFD is a free online face database containing images of faces of people from various races and genders. We provide templates for each of 597 neutral (non-expressive) faces in version two of the CFD. Our templates are unique because the facial landmarks were hand placed by researchers. Hand placing facial landmarks allows for more accurate placement of landmarks than a computer-generated template. Historically, hand-placed templates were created by individual labs and not shared. In this paper, we describe how our templates were created, and some possible uses for the templates. We hope that our templates ease the burden for other researchers to manipulate faces.

The Questionnaire on Self-Transcendence (QUEST): A Measure of Trait Self-Transcendence Informed by Contextual Cognitive Behavioral Therapies.

Self-transcendence is thought to increase well-being and is implicitly promoted in contextual cognitive behavioral therapies (CCBTs). This study conceptualizes, develops, and validates the first comprehensive CCBT-informed self-transcendence questionnaire. Using a CCBT-informed theory, we propose four self-transcendence facets: distancing oneself from mental content, distinguishing an observer of mental experience that is separate from the content of experience, experiencing innate connectedness with other beings, and noticing the constantly changing nature of experience. We measured these facets with items from existing relevant questionnaires and novel, expert-informed items. Exploratory factor analyses and bifactor exploratory structural equation models supported the first three of these facets. Those factors evidenced convergent validity with decentering, defusion, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness, and criterion and incremental validity in predicting psychological well-being. Our findings support a CCBT-informed model of self-transcendence, introduce the first instrument to comprehensively measure the self-transcendence facets we identified, indicate links with well-being, and suggest future intervention targets.

Flexible approaches for estimating partial eta squared in mixed-effects models with crossed random factors.

Mixed-effects models are frequently used in a variety of disciplines because they can appropriately specify multiple sources of variation. However, precisely because they distinguish between multiple sources of variation, it is difficult to specify a standardized effect size, such as η2. Several approaches to this problem have been proposed, but most do not address models with crossed random factors, and none allows for the range of data and models that researchers typically test. For example, no existing approach handles random slopes for a continuous predictor. We introduce several new, flexible approaches to estimating η2 in mixed-effect models with crossed random factors. We then conduct a simulation to assess new and old methods. We examine their respective strengths and weaknesses and offer recommendations for a simple approach based on the work of Snijders and Bosker (2011).

Does Cross-Race Contact Improve Cross-Race Face Perception? A Meta-Analysis of the Cross-Race Deficit and Contact.

Contact with racial outgroups is thought to reduce the cross-race recognition deficit (CRD), the tendency for people to recognize same-race (i.e., ingroup) faces more accurately than cross-race (i.e., outgroup) faces. In 2001, Meissner and Brigham conducted a meta-analysis in which they examined this question and found a meta-analytic effect of r = -.13. We conduct a new meta-analysis based on 20 years of additional data to update the estimate of this relationship and examine theoretical and methodological moderators of the effect. We find a meta-analytic effect of r = -.15. In line with theoretical predictions, we find some evidence that the magnitude of this relationship is stronger when contact occurs during childhood rather than adulthood. We find no evidence that the relationship differs for measures of holistic/configural processing compared with normal processing. Finally, we find that the magnitude of the relationship depends on the operationalization of contact and that it is strongest when contact is manipulated. We consider recommendations for further research on this topic.

The India Face Set: International and Cultural Boundaries Impact Face Impressions and Perceptions of Category Membership.

This paper serves three specific goals. First, it reports the development of an Indian Asian face set, to serve as a free resource for psychological research. Second, it examines whether the use of pre-tested U.S.-specific norms for stimulus selection or weighting may introduce experimental confounds in studies involving non-U.S. face stimuli and/or non-U.S. participants. Specifically, it examines whether subjective impressions of the face stimuli are culturally dependent, and the extent to which these impressions reflect social stereotypes and ingroup favoritism. Third, the paper investigates whether differences in face familiarity impact accuracy in identifying face ethnicity. To this end, face images drawn from volunteers in India as well as a subset of Caucasian face images from the Chicago Face Database were presented to Indian and U.S. participants, and rated on a range of measures, such as perceived attractiveness, warmth, and social status. Results show significant differences in the overall valence of ratings of ingroup and outgroup faces. In addition, the impression ratings show minor differentiation along two basic stereotype dimensions, competence and trustworthiness, but not warmth. We also find participants to show significantly greater accuracy in correctly identifying the ethnicity of ingroup faces, relative to outgroup faces. This effect is found to be mediated by ingroup-outgroup differences in perceived group typicality of the target faces. Implications for research on intergroup relations in a cross-cultural context are discussed.

An error in the analysis of "An eye for the I".

Reports an error in "An eye for the I: Preferential attention to the eyes of ingroup members" by Kerry Kawakami, Amanda Williams, David Sidhu, Becky L. Choma, Rosa Rodriguez-Bailón, Elena Cañadas, Derek Chung and Kurt Hugenberg (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2014[Jul], Vol 107[1], 1-20). Kawakami and colleagues (Kawakami et al., 2014) conducted a series of studies in which participants saw pairs of faces (e.g., one Black and one White, or one ingroup and one outgroup) while eye tracking data were recorded. Because two faces were presented simultaneously, participants were allowed to choose how to allocate attention between the two faces. Often, they attended to one type of face more the other, creating a difference in base rates. The original analysis suggested that (a) preferential attention to the eyes was more pronounced for same-race faces than for cross-race faces, (b) preferential attention to the eyes was more pronounced for a novel ingroup than a novel outgroup, (c) preferential attention to the eyes was responsive to manipulations of motivation, and (d) preferential attention to the eyes was related to subsequent recognition accuracy. Although the first conclusion seems justified, the last three conclusions are either incorrect or unjustified based on the analyses reported in the article. When we correct for base rates, we see that most of the effects disappear. At the date of this writing, Kawakami and colleagues' article has 64 citations in Google scholar, including several that base their arguments on analyses we have shown to be incorrect (e.g., Xiao, Coppin, & Van Bavel, 2016). It is important for the field to acknowledge the error in these analyses and ensure that future theoretical and empirical work rests on a solid foundation. It is also important for researchers to understand the issues that gave rise to this mistake and ensure that, in future work, methods avoid this kind of confound or analyses appropriately adjust for it. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2014-25638-001.) Human faces, and more specifically the eyes, play a crucial role in social and nonverbal communication because they signal valuable information about others. It is therefore surprising that few studies have investigated the impact of intergroup contexts and motivations on attention to the eyes of ingroup and outgroup members. Four experiments investigated differences in eye gaze to racial and novel ingroups using eye tracker technology. Whereas Studies 1 and 3 demonstrated that White participants attended more to the eyes of White compared to Black targets, Study 2 showed a similar pattern of attention to the eyes of novel ingroup and outgroup faces. Studies 3 and 4 also provided new evidence that eye gaze is flexible and can be meaningfully influenced by current motivations. Specifically, instructions to individuate specific social categories increased attention to the eyes of target group members. Furthermore, the latter experiments demonstrated that preferential attention to the eyes of ingroup members predicted important intergroup biases such as recognition of ingroup over outgroup faces (i.e., the own-race bias; Study 3) and willingness to interact with outgroup members (Study 4). The implication of these findings for general theorizing on face perception, individuation processes, and intergroup relations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Avoid Cohen's 'Small', 'Medium', and 'Large' for Power Analysis.

One of the most difficult and important decisions in power analysis involves specifying an effect size. Researchers frequently employ definitions of small, medium, and large that were proposed by Jacob Cohen. These definitions are problematic for two reasons. First, they are arbitrary, based on non-scientific criteria. Second, they are inconsistent, changing dramatically and illogically as a function of the statistical test a researcher plans to use (e.g., t-test versus regression). These problems may be unknown to many researchers, but they have a huge impact on power analyses. Estimates of the required n may be inappropriately doubled or cut in half. For power analyses to have any meaning, these definitions of effect size should be avoided.

Of Kith and Kin: Perceptual Enrichment, Expectancy, and Reciprocity in Face Perception.

Race powerfully affects perceivers' responses to faces, promoting biases in attention, classification, and memory. To account for these diverse effects, we propose a model that integrates social cognitive work with two prominent accounts of visual processing: perceptual learning and predictive coding. Our argument is that differential experience with a racial ingroup promotes both (a) perceptual enrichment, including richer, more well-integrated visual representations of ingroup relative to outgroup faces, and (b) expectancies that ingroup faces are normative, which influence subsequent visual processing. By allowing for "top-down" expectancy-based processes, this model accounts for both experience- and non-experience-based influences, such as motivation, context, and task instructions. Fundamentally, we suggest that we treat race as an important psychological dimension because it structures our social environment, which in turn structures mental representation.

Brain Network Activity During Face Perception: The Impact of Perceptual Familiarity and Individual Differences in Childhood Experience.

An extended distributed network of brain regions supports face perception. Face familiarity influences activity in brain regions involved in this network, but the impact of perceptual familiarity on this network has never been directly assessed with the use of partial least squares analysis. In the present work, we use this multivariate statistical analysis to examine how face-processing systems are differentially recruited by characteristics of the targets (i.e. perceptual familiarity and race) and of the perceivers (i.e. childhood interracial contact). Novel faces were found to preferentially recruit a large distributed face-processing network compared with perceptually familiar faces. Additionally, increased interracial contact during childhood led to decreased recruitment of distributed brain networks previously implicated in face perception, salience detection, and social cognition. Current results provide a novel perspective on the impact of cross-race exposure, suggesting that interracial contact early in life may dramatically shape the neural substrates of face perception generally.

Childhood contact predicts hemispheric asymmetry in cross-race face processing.

Participants typically process same-race faces more quickly and more accurately than cross-race faces. This deficit is amplified in the right hemisphere of the brain, presumably due to its involvement in configural processing. The present research tested the idea that cross-race contact tunes cognitive and perceptual systems, influencing this asymmetric race-based deficit in face processing. Participants with high and low levels of contact performed a lateralized recognition task with same- and cross-race faces. Replicating prior work, participants with minimal contact showed cross-race deficits in processing that were larger in the right hemisphere. For participants with more contact, this lateralized deficit disappeared. This effect of contact seems to be independent of race-based attitudes (e.g., prejudice).

The impact of motivation on race-based impression formation.

Affective biases toward racial out-group members, characterized by White perceivers' negative evaluations of Black individuals, prevail in U.S. culture. Such affective associations have been found to guide race-based impression formation. Accordingly, individuals may strive to resolve inconsistencies when perceiving targets violating their expectations. The current study focuses on the impact of evaluative incongruence on the activity of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) - a brain region previously shown to support impression formation. When asking participants to form impressions of positively and negatively evaluated Black and White individuals, we found preferential dmPFC activity in response to individuals paired with information that violates race-based affective associations. Importantly, individual differences in internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS) were found to shape the extent to which dmPFC activity indexes the interactive effects of race and affective associations during impression formation. Specifically, preferential dmPFC activity in response to evaluatively incongruent targets (i.e., Black-positive & White-negative) was present among participants with lower, but not those with higher, levels of IMS. Implications and future directions are discussed in the context of dmPFC involvement in social cognition.

Brain activation underlying threat detection to targets of different races.

The current study examined blood oxygen level-dependent signal underlying racial differences in threat detection. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants determined whether pictures of Black or White individuals held weapons. They were instructed to make shoot responses when the picture showed armed individuals but don't shoot responses to unarmed individuals, with the cost of not shooting armed individuals being greater than that of shooting unarmed individuals. Participants were faster to shoot armed Blacks than Whites, but faster in making don't shoot responses to unarmed Whites than Blacks. Brain activity differed to armed versus unarmed targets depending on target race, suggesting different mechanisms underlying threat versus safety decisions. Anterior cingulate cortex was preferentially engaged for unarmed Whites than Blacks. Parietal and visual cortical regions exhibited greater activity for armed Blacks than Whites. Seed-based functional connectivity of the amygdala revealed greater coherence with parietal and visual cortices for armed Blacks than Whites. Furthermore, greater implicit Black-danger associations were associated with increased amygdala activation to armed Blacks, compared to armed Whites. Our results suggest that different neural mechanisms may underlie racial differences in responses to armed versus unarmed targets.

The Chicago face database: A free stimulus set of faces and norming data.

Researchers studying a range of psychological phenomena (e.g., theory of mind, emotion, stereotyping and prejudice, interpersonal attraction, etc.) sometimes employ photographs of people as stimuli. In this paper, we introduce the Chicago Face Database, a free resource consisting of 158 high-resolution, standardized photographs of Black and White males and females between the ages of 18 and 40 years and extensive data about these targets. In Study 1, we report pre-testing of these faces, which includes both subjective norming data and objective physical measurements of the images included in the database. In Study 2 we surveyed psychology researchers to assess the suitability of these targets for research purposes and explored factors that were associated with researchers' judgments of suitability. Instructions are outlined for those interested in obtaining access to the stimulus set and accompanying ratings and measures.

Stereotypic vision: how stereotypes disambiguate visual stimuli.

Three studies examined how participants use race to disambiguate visual stimuli. Participants performed a first-person-shooter task in which Black and White targets appeared holding either a gun or an innocuous object (e.g., a wallet). In Study 1, diffusion analysis (Ratcliff, 1978) showed that participants rapidly acquired information about a gun when it appeared in the hands of a Black target, and about an innocuous object in the hands of a White target. For counterstereotypic pairings (armed Whites, unarmed Blacks), participants acquired information more slowly. In Study 2, eye tracking showed that participants relied on more ambiguous information (measured by visual angle from fovea) when responding to stereotypic targets; for counterstereotypic targets, they achieved greater clarity before responding. In Study 3, participants were briefly exposed to targets (limiting access to visual information) but had unlimited time to respond. In spite of their slow, deliberative responses, they showed racial bias. This pattern is inconsistent with control failure and suggests that stereotypes influenced identification of the object. All 3 studies show that race affects visual processing by supplementing objective information.

Toward a comprehensive understanding of executive cognitive function in implicit racial bias.

Although performance on laboratory-based implicit bias tasks often is interpreted strictly in terms of the strength of automatic associations, recent evidence suggests that such tasks are influenced by higher-order cognitive control processes, so-called executive functions (EFs). However, extant work in this area has been limited by failure to account for the unity and diversity of EFs, focus on only a single measure of bias and/or EF, and relatively small sample sizes. The current study sought to comprehensively model the relation between individual differences in EFs and the expression of racial bias in 3 commonly used laboratory measures. Participants (N = 485) completed a battery of EF tasks (Session 1) and 3 racial bias tasks (Session 2), along with numerous individual difference questionnaires. The main findings were as follows: (a) measures of implicit bias were only weakly intercorrelated; (b) EF and estimates of automatic processes both predicted implicit bias and also interacted, such that the relation between automatic processes and bias expression was reduced at higher levels of EF; (c) specific facets of EF were differentially associated with overall task performance and controlled processing estimates across different bias tasks; (d) EF did not moderate associations between implicit and explicit measures of bias; and (e) external, but not internal, motivation to control prejudice depended on EF to reduce bias expression. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of global and specific EF abilities in determining expression of implicit racial bias.

The impact of childhood experience on amygdala response to perceptually familiar black and white faces.

Given the well-documented involvement of the amygdala in race perception, the current study aimed to investigate how interracial contact during childhood shapes amygdala response to racial outgroup members in adulthood. Of particular interest was the impact of childhood experience on amygdala response to familiar, compared with novel, Black faces. Controlling for a number of well-established individual difference measures related to interracial attitudes, the results reveal that perceivers with greater childhood exposure to racial outgroup members display greater relative reduction in amygdala response to familiar Black faces. The implications of such findings are discussed in the context of previous investigations into the neural substrates of race perception and in consideration of potential mechanisms by which childhood experience may shape race perception.

Understanding police and expert performance: when training attenuates (vs. exacerbates) stereotypic bias in the decision to shoot.

In three studies, we examined how training may attenuate (or exacerbate) racial bias in the decision to shoot. In Experiment 1, when novices read a newspaper article about Black criminals, they showed pronounced racial bias in a first-person-shooter task (FPST); when they read about White criminals, bias was eliminated. Experts (who practiced the FPST) and police officers were unaffected by the same stereotype-accessibility manipulation. However, when training itself (base rates of armed vs. unarmed targets in the FPST, Experiment 2a; or special unit officers who routinely deal with minority gang members, Experiment 2b) reinforced the association between Blacks and danger, training did not attenuate bias. When race is unrelated to the presence/absence of a weapon, training may eliminate bias as participants learn to focus on diagnostic object information (gun vs. no gun). But when training actually promotes the utility of racial cues, it may sustain the heuristic use of stereotypes.

Dangerous Enough: Moderating Racial Bias with Contextual Threat Cues.

Research shows that participants shoot armed Blacks more frequently and quickly than armed Whites, but make don't-shoot responses more frequently and quickly for unarmed Whites than unarmed Blacks. We argue that this bias reflects the perception of threat - specifically, threat associated with Black males. Other danger cues (not just race) may create a similar predisposition to shoot, and if these cues promote shooting when the target is White, they should attenuate racial bias. We embedded targets in threatening andsafe backgrounds. Racial bias was evident in safe contexts but disappeared when context signaled danger, and this reduction was largely due to an increased tendency to shoot White targets.