| Abstract: | Human adults are more accurate at discriminating faces from their own race than faces from another race. This other‐race effect (ORE) has been characterized as a reflection of face processing specialization arising from differential experience with own‐race faces. We examined whether 3.5‐month‐old infants exhibit ORE using morphed faces on which adults had displayed a crossover ORE (i.e., Caucasians performed better on Caucasian faces and Asians performed better on Asian faces). In this experiment, Caucasian infants who had grown up in a predominantly Caucasian environment discriminated 100% Caucasian faces from 70% Caucasian/30% Asian morphed faces but failed to discriminate between the corresponding 100% Asian and 70% Asian/30% Caucasian faces. Thus, 3.5‐month‐olds exhibited evidence of ORE. These results indicate that at least by 3.5 months of age, infants have attained enough face processing expertise to process familiar‐race faces in a different manner than unfamiliar‐race faces. |
