Center for Taste, Smell & Feeding Behavior, Development of Olfactory Communication & Cognition Laboratory, Université de Bourgogne, CNRS, Inrae, Institut Agro Dijon, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA.
Br J Psychol. 2023 May;114 Suppl 1:71-93. doi: 10.1111/bjop.12582. Epub 2022 Jul 9.
Faces can be categorized along various dimensions including gender or race, an ability developing in infancy. Infant categorization studies have focused on facial attributes in isolation, but the interaction between these attributes remains poorly understood. Experiment 1 examined gender categorization of other-race faces in 9- and 12-month-old White infants. Nine- and 12-month-olds were familiarized with Asian male or female faces, and tested with a novel exemplar from the familiarized category paired with a novel exemplar from a novel category. Both age groups showed novel category preferences for novel Asian female faces after familiarization with Asian male faces, but showed no novel category preference for novel Asian male faces after familiarization with Asian female faces. This categorization asymmetry was not due to a spontaneous preference hindering novel category reaction (Experiment 2), and both age groups displayed difficulty discriminating among male, but not female, other-race faces (Experiment 3). These results indicate that category formation for male other-race faces is mediated by categorical perception. Overall, the findings suggest that even by 12 months of age, infants are not fully able to form gender category representations of other-race faces, responding categorically to male, but not female, other-race faces.
面孔可以沿着各种维度进行分类，包括性别或种族，这是婴儿时期发展的一种能力。婴儿分类研究侧重于单独的面部属性，但这些属性之间的相互作用仍知之甚少。实验 1 研究了 9 个月和 12 个月大的白人婴儿对其他种族面孔的性别分类。9 个月和 12 个月大的婴儿熟悉亚洲男性或女性的面孔，然后用熟悉的类别中的一个新范例和一个新类别的新范例对他们进行测试。在熟悉亚洲男性面孔后，两组婴儿在新类别中都更喜欢新的亚洲女性面孔，但在熟悉亚洲女性面孔后，他们对新的亚洲男性面孔没有新的类别偏好。这种分类不对称不是由于自发偏好阻碍了新类别的反应（实验 2），并且两组婴儿在辨别男性但不是女性其他种族面孔时都有困难（实验 3）。这些结果表明，男性其他种族面孔的类别形成受到范畴知觉的影响。总的来说，这些发现表明，即使在 12 个月大时，婴儿还不能完全形成其他种族面孔的性别类别代表，他们对男性其他种族面孔做出范畴性反应，但对女性其他种族面孔没有。
