Recognition and context memory for faces from own and other ethnic groups: a remember-know investigation

Mem Cognit. 2010 Mar;38(2):134-41. doi: 10.3758/MC.38.2.134.

Abstract

People are more accurate at recognizing faces from their own ethnic group than at recognizing faces from other ethnic groups. This other-ethnicity effect (OEE) in recognition may be produced by a deficit in recollective memory for other-ethnicity faces. In a single study, White and Black participants saw White and Black faces presented within several different visual contexts. The participants were then given an old/new recognition task. Old responses were followed by remember-know-guess judgments and context judgments. Own-ethnicity faces were recognized more accurately, were given more remember responses, and produced more accurate context judgments than did other-ethnicity faces. These results are discussed in a dual-process framework, and implications for eyewitness memory are considered.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Ethnicity*
  • Facial Expression*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Memory*
  • Recognition, Psychology*
  • Self Concept*
  • Visual Perception
  • Young Adult