Collaborative Research: Effects of cross-race contact on perceptual expertise, expectancies, and individuated face processing

大多数人从自己的经验中知道，认出一个不同种族的人比认出一个属于自己种族的人更难。我们称这种现象为跨种族识别缺陷（或CRD）。CRD是一种稳健效应，已在世界各地进行了研究。它影响了试图记住黑人面孔的白色人，也影响了试图记住白色面孔的黑人，以及试图记住亚洲面孔的两组人。研究小组将调查两种可能导致CRD的心理过程。首先，人们可能无法从跨种族的面孔中获得有用的信息，因为他们没有受过在这些面孔中找到正确信息的训练。第二，人们可能怀有一种期望，认为面孔一般来说应该看起来像他们自己种族的面孔，导致他们将跨种族面孔视为天生的外国人。此外，该团队还将研究跨种族接触的自然变化，这可能是CRD的基础，并将通过在线或智能手机应用程序提供跨种族面孔的集中培训。在这项研究中，研究小组希望（a）阐明一个影响人们如何看待彼此的强大而重要的现象，（B）研究一种改善跨种族识别的策略，（c）引入改进的工具（像智能手机应用程序）和措施，将免费提供给科学家和外行人一样。在这组研究中，研究人员将检查（a）CRD，（B）CRD与个人与其他种族群体成员的接触或经历程度之间的关系，以及（c）引起CRD及其与接触关系的认知操作。这项工作将利用视觉处理的两个突出理论-感知学习和预测编码-来预测CRD，这是一种具有深远社会心理和社会影响的现象。该提案的目标1测试了一个理论模型（Correll，哈德逊，Guillermo，Earls，2016），该模型认为跨种族接触和CRD之间的关系是由（a）感知学习的变化介导的，这使得感知者能够更有效地从感知者通常遇到的各种面孔中编码个性化信息;（B）对面孔应该是什么样子的期望，这再次反映了感知者的社会经验。在目标2中，团队转向了CRD如何影响从一个面到另一个面的泛化的问题。例如，如果一个参与者知道一个群体中的一个成员是友好的（或不友好的），那么这个信息会推广到这个群体的其他成员吗？强有力的理论论据认为，刺激之间的相似性应该促进泛化，而CRD -在其核心-反映了跨种族面孔之间的相似性感知。这项工作的科学影响是多方面的：它将整合视觉科学和社会心理学，并探索一种减少偏见和刻板印象的不寻常方法。此外，该团队还将开发一款免费的面部训练智能手机应用程序，供研究人员使用。这项工作的更广泛影响也是广泛的：CRD在实验室之外有许多后果（例如，目击者证词，人际互动），本项目将研究减少CRD的方法。该团队将开发和验证一个免费的应用程序，将提供给那些想要练习跨种族人脸识别的人。此外，鉴于这两个机构的本科生研究助理群体多样化，这项工作将使代表性不足的人群接触到这些群体经常被排除在外的科学类型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Most people know from their own experience that it is harder to recognize someone of a different race than it is to recognize someone who belongs to one’s own racial group. We call this phenomenon the cross-race recognition deficit (or CRD). The CRD is a robust effect which has been studied all over the world. It influences both White people trying to remember Black faces, but also Black people trying to remember White faces, and both groups trying to remember Asian faces. The team will investigate two psychological processes that may contribute to the CRD. First, people may fail to pick up on useful information in cross-race faces because they are untrained at finding the right kinds of information in those faces. Second, people may harbor an expectation that faces, in general, should look like faces from their own racial group, leading them to see cross-race faces as inherently foreign. In addition, the team will examine natural variation in cross-race contact which may underlie CRD, and will implement focused training with cross-race faces which will be delivered online or through a smartphone application. In this study, the team hopes to (a) shed light on a robust, important phenomenon that affects how people see one another, (b) examine a strategy to improve cross-race recognition, and (c) introduce improved tools (like a smartphone app) and measures that will be available for free to scientists and lay people alike.In this set of studies, the researchers will examine (a) the CRD, (b) the relationship between the CRD and the extent of an individual’s contact or experience with members of other racial groups, as well as (c) the cognitive operations that give rise to both the CRD and its relationship to contact. The work will leverage two prominent theories of visual processing – perceptual learning and predictive coding – to make predictions about the CRD, a phenomenon with far-reaching social psychological and societal consequences. Aim 1 of this proposal tests a theoretical model (Correll, Hudson, Guillermo, & Earls, 2016) which argues that the relationship between cross-race contact and the CRD is mediated by changes in (a) perceptual learning, which allows the perceiver to more efficaciously encode individuating information from the kinds of faces that a perceiver typically encounters; and (b) expectancies about what a face should look like, which again reflect the perceiver’s social experience. In Aim 2, the team turns to the question of how the CRD impacts generalization from one face to another. For example, if a participant learns that one member of a group is friendly (or unfriendly), does that information generalize to other members of the group? Robust theoretical arguments contend that similarity between stimuli should promote generalization, and the CRD – at its heart – reflects the perception of similarity among cross-race faces. The scientific impacts of this work are numerous: It will integrate vision science and social psychology, and explore an unusual method for reducing prejudice and stereotyping. Furthermore, the team will develop a free face-training smartphone application that will be available for researchers to use. The broader impacts of the work are also wide ranging: The CRD has many consequences outside the laboratory (e.g., eye-witness testimony, interpersonal interactions), and this project will investigate ways to reduce CRD. The team will develop and validate a free app that will be available to lay people who want to practice cross-race face recognition. In addition, given a diverse group of undergraduate research assistants at both institutions, this work will expose under-represented populations to the type of science from which these groups are often excluded.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.