Origin and Development of the "Other-Race Effect" in Children

儿童“异族效应”的起源与发展

• 批准号: 0130826
• 负责人: John Brigham
• 金额: $ 25.76万
• 依托单位: Florida State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-06-15 至 2005-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0130826&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Origin; Development; Other; Race; Effect

Analyses of "wrongful convictions," cases in which subsequent evidence (e.g., DNA analyses) has indicated that the convicted person was not guilty of the crime, have found that incorrect eyewitness identifications have led to more convictions of innocent people than have all other factors combined. Prior research has shown that a key factor on eyewitness mistakes is the tendency for people to recognize faces of a different race more poorly than faces of their own race; this phenomenon has been called the "other-race effect." Research with adults has clearly demonstrated the pervasiveness of this effect, but little is known about when this effect originates or what its course of development may be through childhood. This gap in knowledge is addressed in the current project by examining the effect in young African Americans and Whites at four developmental levels (second graders, sixth graders, tenth graders, and college sophomores). The goals of the project are to understand how the effect develops across childhood, and whether and how it can be changed. In addition to yielding important basic information about human perception and memory, these studies should provide useful information to those who work with children as witnesses in the criminal and civil justice systems. The findings should be particularly relevant to those who formulate policies about how best to obtain, interpret, and utilize eyewitness memory reports from children of various ages.

对“不法定罪”的分析，随后的证据（例如，DNA分析）表明，被定罪的人对犯罪无罪，发现不正确的目击者识别导致对无辜者的信念比所有其他因素都多。先前的研究表明，目击者错误的关键因素是人们倾向于认识到与自己种族的面孔更差的不同种族的面孔。这种现象被称为“其他种族效应”。与成年人进行的研究清楚地证明了这种效果的普遍性，但是对这种效果何时起源或在童年时期可能是什么发展的过程，知之甚少。当前项目中的知识差距通过四个发展水平（二年级学生，六年级学生，十年级学生和大学大二学生）的影响来解决这一知识差距。该项目的目标是了解整个童年的影响以及如何以及如何更改的影响。除了产生有关人类看法和记忆的重要基本信息外，这些研究还应为与儿童一起作为刑事和民事司法系统的证人一起工作的人提供有用的信息。这些发现应与那些制定有关如何最好地获得，解释和利用各个年龄段儿童的目击者记忆报告的政策的人特别相关。