The Effects of Prediction on the Perception for Own-Race and Other-Race Faces |
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Authors: | Guangming Ran Qi Zhang Xu Chen Yangu Pan |
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Institution: | 1. Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing, 400715, China.; 2. Research Center of Mental Health Education, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing, 400715, China.; 3. School of Education Science, Guizhou Normal University (GNU), Guizhou, 550001, China.; Liaoning Normal University, China, |
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Abstract: | Human beings do not passively perceive important social features about others such as race and age in social interactions. Instead, it is proposed that humans might continuously generate predictions about these social features based on prior similar experiences. Pre-awareness of racial information conveyed by others'' faces enables individuals to act in “culturally appropriate” ways, which is useful for interpersonal relations in different ethnicity groups. However, little is known about the effects of prediction on the perception for own-race and other-race faces. Here, we addressed this issue using high temporal resolution event-related potential techniques. In total, data from 24 participants (13 women and 11 men) were analyzed. It was found that the N170 amplitudes elicited by other-race faces, but not own-race faces, were significantly smaller in the predictable condition compared to the unpredictable condition, reflecting a switch to holistic processing of other-race faces when those faces were predictable. In this respect, top-down prediction about face race might contribute to the elimination of the other-race effect (one face recognition impairment). Furthermore, smaller P300 amplitudes were observed for the predictable than for unpredictable conditions, which suggested that the prediction of race reduced the neural responses of human brains. |
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