Cross-race Effect - Empirical Findings - Holistic and Featural

Holistic and Featural

In another study by Tanak et al., the researchers tested 21 Caucasian undergraduates and 21 Asian undergraduates both recruited from places deemed primarily Caucasian, holistic and featural methods of processing for recognition. The Caucasian participants demonstrated holistic processing for the recognition of Caucasian faces and featural processing for recognition of unfamiliar Asian faces. Given that participants in this study had extensive exposure to members of their own race, these findings indicate that experience of own-race faces promotes holistic processing. Consistent with the experience claim, Asian participants who had frequent interactions with Caucasian people demonstrated comparable levels of holistic recognition for Caucasian faces as they did for Asian faces. The obtained results are compatible with the account that experience is important for holistic face recognition.