Expertise, Face Recognition & the Cerebral Hemispheres

描述（由申请人提供）：为什么其他种族的人的脸很难被记住？许多实证研究都显示了识别记忆中的本种族偏见（ORB） （Meissner and Brigham, 2001）。然而，人们对驱动这种效应的认知过程还没有明确的认识。面部的早期知觉处理已被证明会激活两侧的腹侧颞叶皮层区域（Kanwisher et al., 1997），但主要在右半脑。该区域最近被认为不支持人脸识别本身，而是支持专家对象识别（Gauthier et al., 2003; Gauthier et al., 2000）。由于与其他种族的经验或“接触”已被认为是ORB中的一个重要因素，因此人们可能会预测右半球轨迹对记忆中的本种族偏见。然而，最近的一项神经成像研究表明，实际上是左半球腹侧颞叶激活与随后的识别准确性和ORB相关。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裂脑中的人脸识别。然后，我们将检查ORB中面部视觉信息（肤色或结构变化）的作用。如果种族作为一种视觉特征被处理（Levin, 2000），从而导致对面部的分类（和刻板印象- Blair et al., 2002）处理，我们可以问，面部的哪些方面触发了这种处理？将研究诸如肤色和跨种族面孔的结构特性等因素对ORB的具体贡献。最后，我们将探讨双任务干扰对工作记忆中自身和跨种族人脸识别的影响。如果专业知识有助于增加工作记忆能力（Ericsson and Kintsch, 1995），那么双任务干扰对本种族面孔识别的影响应该很小（Turk, 2001），但会损害对跨种族面孔的记忆。该项目旨在评估两个大脑半球对ORB的相对贡献，并通过暗示，对面孔类型的专业知识或熟悉程度在工作记忆中作为自身种族偏见背后的驱动力的作用。

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.