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Association Learning with Own‐ and Other‐race Faces in three‐ and six‐month old infants – A longitudinal study
Author(s) -
Fassbender Ina,
Lohaus Arnold,
Thomas Hoben,
Teubert Manuel,
Vierhaus Marc,
Spangler Sibylle M.,
Kolling Thorsten,
Goertz Claudia,
Graf Frauke,
Lamm Bettina,
Gudi Helene,
Freitag Claudia,
Keller Heidi,
Knopf Monika,
Schwarzer Gudrun
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
infant and child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.87
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1522-7219
pISSN - 1522-7227
DOI - 10.1002/icd.756
Subject(s) - psychology , race (biology) , stimulus (psychology) , ethnic group , longitudinal study , developmental psychology , association (psychology) , german , visual perception , audiology , perception , cognitive psychology , medicine , neuroscience , history , botany , archaeology , pathology , sociology , anthropology , psychotherapist , biology
This longitudinal study assessed 133 Caucasian German infants at 3 and 6 months of age to investigate the influence of own‐race and other‐race faces as visual stimuli on association learning in the visual expectation paradigm (VExP). The study is related to the findings on the other‐race‐effect (ORE) which is said to emerge at 6 months of age. Caucasian faces were used as stimuli of a familiar ethnic category, whereas African faces were used as stimuli of an unfamiliar ethnic category. There was no significant difference between the two stimulus classes in infants' reaction time (RT) to stimulus shifts at 3 months. At 6 months of age, infants' RT decreased significantly in the Caucasian faces condition but not in the African faces condition. These results indicate that the processing of other‐race versus own‐race faces by the age of 6 months, which is also the relevant age for the onset of the ORE, has an important influence on the performance on the VExP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.