Regional Selectivity For First Fixation Mediates The Other-Race Effect On Face Recognition

Humans are generally perceiving and recognizing own-race faces better than other-race faces. This phenomenon is called the other-race effect (ORE). Face region expertise theory proposes that people have shown the area-selective in extracting face information in the processing of face expertise, and the eye region is the expertise area. The ORE was caused by the higher processing resolution in eye region information from own-race faces than other-race faces. However, how people extract facial information is unclear. An array of researches indicates that face perception and face recognition are very fast that one fixation, which is the first fixation, is enough. Hence, whether the first fixation location is related to the ORE? We manipulate the first fixation location and record the eye movement to investigate this question.In study 1, using the perceptual face-identification task, we investigate Asian participants’ performances in perceiving Asian and Caucasian faces. The results showed that:(1) in the free eye movement task, participants perceived own-race faces significantly better than other-race faces, and (2) in changing first fixation location task, participants perceived own-race faces significantly better than other-race faces when the fixation cross is located on eye region, and the ORE is reduced when the fixation cross is located on mouse region, and the ORE is disappeared when the fixation cross is located on nose region. These findings reveal that the first fixation location could mediate the ORE in face perception.In study 2, using the old/new tasks and eye-tracking techniques, we investigated Asian participants’processing in recognizing Asian and Caucasian faces. The results showed that:(1) in the free eye movement task, participants recognized own-race faces significantly better than other-race faces, meanwhile, their first fixations were fixated on the eye region no matter look at own-race faces or other-race faces, and they spent more time on eye region and nose region for total duration, and (2) in the guiding or changing first fixation location task, participants recognized own-race faces significantly better than other-race faces when the fixation cross is located on eye region, and the ORE is reduced even to none when the fixation cross is located on nose region, and (3) the nose region is not always received the most total duration time. These findings reveal that the first fixation location could mediate the ORE in face recognition, and the total duration time has little to say in the ORE.In conclusion, our studies:(1) support the face region expertise theory and the eye region is the expertise area, and (2) the first fixation location could mediate the ORE in face perception and face recognition as well.