Young Children Scan Own- and Other-Race Faces Differently

Visual experience plays an important role in the development of facial processing. Extensive behavioral and neural evidence suggests that the processing of own-race faces differs from that of other-race faces in both adults and infants. However, little eye-tracking research has been devoted to understanding differences between own- and other-race face processing in children. In our study, 83 Chinese children (49 males) aged from 48 to 80 months and 31 Chinese adults (15 males) aged from 19 years to 26 years were asked to remember six female Chinese faces and six female Caucasian faces. None of them had any direct contact with foreign individuals. Participants’ eye movements when viewing the faces were recorded by a Tobii eye-tracker. Results showed that regardless of face race, adults’ proportional fixation durations on the nose were significantly higher than those of children; adults’ saccade counts were also significantly greater than those of children (Figure 1.Row 3). Regardless of participant age, proportional fixation duration on the eyes of Chinese faces was significantly lower than that on the eyes of Caucasian faces, whereas proportional fixation duration on the nose and mouth of Chinese faces was significantly higher than that on the nose and mouth of Caucasian faces(Figure 1.Column 3). In addition, participants’ saccade counts and amplitude on Chinese faces were significantly lower than those on Caucasian faces, suggesting less cognitive effort with processing the familiar own-race faces. In contrast, pupil diameters were significantly greater when viewing Chinese faces than Caucasian faces, indicating a visual preference for the familiar own-race faces. These results suggest that abundance of visual experience with own-race faces and the lack of it with other-race faces may lead both children and adults to use different facial processing strategies when viewing own- and other-race faces.