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Face recognition algorithms and the other‐race effect: computational mechanisms for a developmental contact hypothesis
Author(s) -
Furl Nicholas,
Phillips P. Jonathon,
O'Toole Alice J.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1207/s15516709cog2606_4
Subject(s) - race (biology) , perception , face (sociological concept) , representation (politics) , encode , psychology , space (punctuation) , feature (linguistics) , facial recognition system , cognitive psychology , encoding (memory) , computational model , artificial intelligence , pattern recognition (psychology) , computer science , biology , sociology , neuroscience , social science , linguistics , botany , philosophy , politics , political science , gene , law , operating system , biochemistry
People recognize faces of their own race more accurately than faces of other races. The “contact” hypothesis suggests that this “other‐race effect” occurs as a result of the greater experience we have with own‐ versus other‐race faces. The computational mechanisms that may underlie different versions of the contact hypothesis were explored in this study. We replicated the other‐race effect with human participants and evaluated four classes of computational face recognition algorithms for the presence of an other‐race effect. Consistent with the predictions of a developmental contact hypothesis, “experience‐based models” demonstrated an other‐race effect only when the representational system was developed through experience that warped the perceptual space in a way that was sensitive to the overall structure of the model's experience with faces of different races. When the model's representation relied on a feature set optimized to encode the information in the learned faces, experience‐based algorithms recognized minority ‐race faces more accurately than majority ‐race faces. The results suggest a developmental learning process that warps the perceptual space to enhance the encoding of distinctions relevant for own‐race faces. This feature space limits the quality of face representations for other‐race faces.