Black and White Subjects Facial Recognition - Research Paper Example

? The effect of an in-group voice accompanying a racially ambiguous facial photograph on Black and White s’ facial recognition Institution Introduction With the recent increase in the multicultural population of the United States (Pauker, Weisbuch, Ambady, Sommers, Adams, & Ivcevic, 2009), and a forecasted 21% of the population being multicultural by 2050 (Smith & Edmonston, 1997), an understanding of how human social categorization relates to facial memory could help explain the way generations of people will view their peers. This recent increase in the multicultural population has helped to blur once concrete distinctions between races into more ambiguous distinctions. During the slavery era of this country, it is easy to see how people could view rigid, concrete social structures almost reminiscent of the British class system. In this time, black slaves were considered so different and removed from the aristocratic, land owning class of their owners that their enslavement and torture for centuries was written off as being part of the system. Furthermore, during the Jim Crow era and throughout the passing of the separate but equal legislation, African-Americans in this country were viewed as a concrete, separate racial category not only by many whites, but also by the law itself. In many ways, the separate but equal Brown v. Board of Education hearing reflects the rigid, concrete, categorical race structures that were prevalent in this country during that time. Legal terms like separate but equal give an indication of the way people viewed each other at this time. Obviously, strong categorical race structures dominated the way peers viewed peers. Race would have been at the forefront of the way most people viewed each other initially. Before peers could say hello, there would have been a quick, unconscious categorization of the person they were approaching based on their race and the race of the peer. This initial judgment is no different today, but the recent trends in the multicultural population of the United States have given way to blurred categorical race structures. As a system of rigid, concrete race categories is faced with individuals whose backgrounds are composed of two or even many of these categories, the way individuals perceive each other is forced to change. When individuals comprise several racial categories, peers cannot make such easy judgments as were made during previous eras. If a peer appears to be from a racial category one considers his or her own, and this same peer also appears to be from a racial category one does not consider his or her own, initial separation judgments are confused. This recent breaking down of categorical race structures has obvious implications on the way humans perceive one another, but how does this change affect human facial memory? The body of literature has shown that social categorization occurs within the early stages of perception, but lasts only briefly (Brewer, 1988) making it difficult to study. One model that helps explain the way humans remember faces is the In-Group and Out-Group Memory model (Pauker, Weisbuch, Ambady, Sommers, Adams, & Ivcevic, 2009). This model explains human facial perception as a categorization based on whether the perceived individual is of the same group as the perceiver. For example, an Asian person may perceive another Asian face as being “in-group”. Furthermore, Malpass & Kravitz (1969) showed that people have a tendency to have better facial memory of faces they classify as in-group, and lower facial memory of faces they classify as out-group (Malpass & Kravitz, 1969); a finding that Pauker and colleagues have shown to be repeated by over 100 studies (Pauker, Weisbuch, Ambady, Sommers, Adams, & Ivcevic, 2009). The own race bias links individuals’ in- or out-group categorization of others to individuals’ facial memories of these others by explaining that people remember faces they categorize as in-group better than faces they categorize as out-group. While this model provides a clear interpretation of human perception of others based on clearly defined racial categories, when ambiguity of race begins to blur these categories, further explanations are needed. How do individuals cognitively make the in-group or out-group categorization? Recent literature has argued that this categorization and perception is not a one-time decision, but rather, is a continuous, dynamic process (Freeman, Pauker, Apfelbaum, & Ambady, 2010). Freeman and colleagues (2010) explain that “about 50% of the face’s visual information rapidly accumulates into neuronal populations as early as only 80 ms after a face’s presentation,” showing that “in early moments of processing, representations of race would reflect a rough ‘gist’ of the face.” (Freeman, Pauker, Apfelbaum, & Ambady, 2010) As the multicultural population of the United States continues to increase, these “rough gists” become rougher and rougher, blurring the initial perception of race and the early categorization of in-group or out-group. Freeman and colleagues go on to explain that “early moments of processing tend to be partially consistent with multiple interpretations (both White and Black) because the initial rough sketch of a face partially supports both interpretations.” (Freeman, Pauker, Apfelbaum, & Ambady, 2010) Further blurring the racial distinctions is the fact that the condition in which the in-group or out-group categorization is made can affect the conclusion of the judgment. Freeman and colleagues show that the “various conditions that modulate social category activation [highlight] its malleability.” (Freeman, Pauker, Apfelbaum, & Ambady, 2010) Given this malleability, and given the increased ambiguity of racial categories and perceptions caused by the increased multicultural population, these modulating conditions affecting the social categorization process should take on an increasing role in human’s racial perceptions of ambiguous faces. The modulating condition this study attempts to analyze is voice. Specifically, this study aims to analyze the affect that voice has on an individual’s memory of a racially ambiguous face. The hypothesis of this study is that subjects seeing a racially ambiguous face accompanied by an in-group voice should have a higher recognition score than subjects seeing a racially ambiguous face accompanied by an out-group voice. Methods Participants This study incorporated participants recruited from (YOU NEED TO INSERT WHERE YOU GOT YOUR PARTICIPANTS FROM, I DIDN’T SEE IT IN THE ATTACHMENTS). At the end of recruitment, (INSERT THE NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS HERE) participants were recruited for the study. Finally, (N) participants completed the study, leaving this analysis with an n=(NUMBER). Design The dependent variable for this study was the recognition score, which is a continuous variable. The independent variables for this study were subject race (White or Black) and voice race (in-group or out-group). Because both of these independent variables were categorical variables with two levels, and the dependent variable is a continuous variable, a 2x2 ANOVA analysis was conducted. Materials The two main materials used in this study were 60 photographs of male faces and 30 taped voice samples to accompany 30 of the photographs. 20 of the photographs are of Black faces, 20 are of White faces, and 20 are of racially ambiguous faces. Furthermore, voice samples are of in-group and out-group voices. Procedure Subjects were first shown 30 photographs accompanied by either in-group or out-group voice recordings. After filtering questions were asked, subjects were then shown 60 photographs, 30 of which they had previously seen, and 30 they were not previously presented. Subjects were asked to circle yes or no on the photograph to indicate if they had seen that face before. Subjects were also asked to rate their confidence in their decision on a 1-10 scale. This was used to determine their recognition rate. Results ANOVA analysis revealed an interaction effect between voice race and participant race (F(1,71)= 133.088, p Read More