Expertise, Face Recognition & the Cerebral Hemispheres

描述(由申请者提供)：是什么让其他种族的人如此难以记住他们的面孔？许多实证研究已经证明了再认记忆中的种族偏见(ORB)(Meissner和Brigham，2001)。然而，对驱动这一效应的认知过程还没有明确的理解。对面孔的早期知觉加工已经被证明激活了两侧的腹侧颞叶皮质区域(Kanwisher等人，1997年)，但主要集中在右半球。最近，这一区域被认为支持的不是人脸识别本身，而是专家对象识别(Gauthier等人，2003；Gauthier等人，2000)。由于与其他种族的经历或接触被认为是ORB的一个重要因素，人们可能会在Memory Kuskowski&Pardo，1999中预测到右脑位置与自己的种族偏见有关)。然而，最近的一项神经成像研究表明，事实上，与随后的识别准确性和ORB相关的是左半球腹侧颞叶激活。为了评估每个大脑半球对ORB的相对贡献，本项目的主要部分将研究分裂大脑中的人脸识别。然后，我们将研究视觉信息在ORB中面部(肤色或结构变化)中的作用。如果种族被作为一种视觉特征(Levin，2000)进行加工，从而导致对面孔的分类(和刻板印象-Blair et al.，2002)加工，我们可以问，面孔的哪些方面引发了这种类型的加工？将考察肤色和跨种族面孔的配置属性等元素对ORB的具体贡献。最后，我们将探讨双重任务干扰对工作记忆中同种族和跨种族面孔再认的影响。如果专业知识有助于增加工作记忆的容量(Ericsson和Kintsch，1995)，那么双任务干扰对本种族面孔识别的影响应该不大(Turk，2001)，但应该会损害跨种族面孔的记忆。这个项目试图评估两个大脑半球对大脑半球的相对贡献，以及专业知识或对面孔类型的熟悉作为工作记忆中自我种族偏见背后的驱动力所起的作用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): What is it about the faces of people from other races that make them so difficult to remember? The own-race bias (ORB) in recognition memory has been shown in a number of empirical studies (Meissner and Brigham, 2001). However, there is no clear understanding of the cognitive processes that drive this effect. Early perceptual processing of faces has been shown to activate regions of the ventral temporal cortex bilaterally (Kanwisher et al., 1997), but predominantly in the right hemisphere. This region has latterly been argued to support not face recognition per se, but expert object recognition (Gauthier et al., 2003; Gauthier et al., 2000). Since experience of, or 'contact' with, other races has been suggested as an important factor in the ORB, one might predict a right hemisphere locus to the own-race bias in memory Kuskowski & Pardo, 1999). However, a recent neuroimaging study showed that in fact it was left hemisphere ventral temporal activation that correlated with subsequent recognition accuracy and the ORB. In order to evaluate the relative contribution of each cerebral hemisphere to the ORB the main part of this project will examine face recognition in the split-brain. We will then examine the role of visual information in the face (skin color or configural changes) in the ORB. If race is processed as a visual feature (Levin, 2000) which leads to categorical (and stereotypic - Blair et al., 2002) processing of the face, we can ask what aspects of the face trigger this type of processing? The specific contribution of elements such as skin color and configural properties of cross-race faces to the ORB will be examined. Finally, we will explore the effects of dual-task interference on own- and cross-race face recognition in working memory. If expertise serves to increase capacity in working memory (Ericsson and Kintsch, 1995) then dual-task interference should have little impact on own-race face recognition (Turk, 2001 ), but should impair memory for cross-race faces. This project seeks to evaluate the relative contribution of the two cerebral hemispheres to the ORB and by implication, the role of expertise or familiarity with face types as the driving force behind the own-race bias in working memory.