Face recognition and the other-race effect in young adults

Face recognition is influenced by multiple factors. One of these factors is the "other-race" effect, which says it is easier to recognize own-race faces than another race. Several hypotheses to explain this effect have been offered, including differential processing faces of one's own race are processed more "deeply" than other-race faces. A pilot study was performed with 12 participants being shown random pictures of Caucasian and African American faces. In the testing portion, they were to decide whether the face was old, new, or the clothing color had been changed. An other-race effect was shown for Caucasian participants. 32 participants, 16 African American and 16 Caucasian were tested in a redefined version of the pilot study. Findings of d' values and other measures failed to replicate the other-race effect. This may be due to limitations of design and presentation.