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Date Permissions Signed

5-26-2017

Date of Award

Spring 2017

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Jantzen, Kelly J.

Second Advisor

Czopp, Alex

Third Advisor

Symons, Larry

Abstract

Given the attentional and motivational saliency of infant faces, triggered by a set of perceptual baby schema features, other-race infants may overcome the processing limitations associated with the Other Race Effect (ORE). Using an attentional bias paradigm, I found that while there was a same-race attentional bias for adult faces, there was no difference in attention bias between same- and other-race infants suggesting that other-race infants have the ability to overcome the attentional limitations associated with processing other-race faces. To directly measure the ORE, I used a recognition memory test to measure encoding differences between same- and other-race infant and adult faces. Regardless of age, same-race faces were better remembered than other-race faces. Further, regardless of race, adult faces were better remembered than infant faces, a finding consistent with an Other Age Effect. Results from the recognition task were validated with differences in Event Related Potentials which found that infant faces may not have been configurally processed as indexed by changes in the N170 and P2 components. However, evidence of infants’ saliency was marked by an increased response of the Late Positive Component (LPC), which supports the findings from the attention experiment. Taken together, these experiments suggest that the saliency of baby schema does not fully overcome the processing limitations of the ORE.

Type

Text

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25710/r0sj-9528

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

988771047

Subject – LCSH

Face perception--Psychological aspects--Testing; Infants; Similarity (Psychology); Difference (Psychology)

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.

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