Adams Reginald B, Pauker Kristin, Weisbuch Max
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University.
J Exp Soc Psychol. 2010 Mar 1;46(2):478-481. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.12.016.
One of the most replicable findings reported in the social psychological literature is the cross-race memory effect. We argue this effect derives from higher-order interactions among social cues that determine the perceived relevance of a face to an observer. The current research tested this hypothesis by examining the combined influences of eye gaze direction and race on face memory. The physical subtlety of eye gaze belies its powerful influence on social perception, and in this case helps specify the relevance of same- versus other-race faces. We found that only in faces making direct eye contact-not those displaying averted eye gaze-was the cross-race memory effect evident. Likewise, only in same-race faces did direct relative to averted gaze enhance face memory. These findings have implications for our general understanding of the combinatorial nature of social perception and help clarify the underlying cause of the cross-race memory effect.
社会心理学文献中报道的最具可重复性的发现之一是跨种族记忆效应。我们认为，这种效应源于社会线索之间的高阶相互作用，这些线索决定了一张脸对观察者的感知相关性。当前的研究通过考察目光注视方向和种族对脸部记忆的综合影响来检验这一假设。目光注视在生理上的微妙之处掩盖了它对社会认知的强大影响，在这种情况下，它有助于明确同种族与其他种族面孔的相关性。我们发现，只有在直接进行目光接触的面孔中——而不是那些目光回避的面孔——跨种族记忆效应才明显。同样，只有在同种族面孔中，相对于目光回避，直接的目光注视才会增强脸部记忆。这些发现对于我们对社会认知的组合性质的总体理解具有启示意义，并有助于阐明跨种族记忆效应的潜在原因。
