Attention modulates the own-age bias in face recognition

Abstract

Numerous studies have found that participants are more accurate at remembering faces from their own-age group rather than other-age group (the own-age bias, OAB, in face recognition). An experience-based account has suggested that more extensive experience on own-age faces than other-race faces causes this bias. There is also a socio-cognitive account, which suggested that individuals have stronger motivation to own-age than other-age faces. However, some recent studies suggested that differential allocation of attention to own-age versus other-age faces may play a role in the underlying process of the OAB. The aim of this study is to investigate whether and how attention affects the own-age bias in face recognition and memory. In Experiment 1, we tested the roles of attention by comparing task performance in focused versus divided attention conditions in two experiments. Firstly, in Experiment 1a, we manipulated participants’ attention by asking or not asking participants to perform a visual interference task when they were performing a face recognition task. Secondly, in Experiment 1b, we adopted auditory interference task to manipulate participants’ attention. The results showed that (i) the OAB emerged in the subsequent memory task in focused attention condition but not in divided attention condition; and (ii) participants’ recognition of own-age faces declined more in divided attention condition than in focused attention condition. Why own-age bias disappeared under a divided attention condition and the divided attention condition interfered memory task performance only for own-age faces? Previous studies suggested that participants tend to adopt more holistic processing for their own-age faces than other-age faces. Is it possible that the divided attention has interfered the holistic processing, and thus own-age faces cannot be processed holistically? We tested this possibility in Experiment 2. Using the same attention manipulation technique in Experiment 1, in Experiment 2, we compared the composite face effect (CFE, a marker of holistic face processing) of the own-age and other-age faces in focused attention versus divided attention condition. The results showed that (i) CFE emerged for the own-age faces in the focused attention condition but not in the divided attention condition; and (ii) we failed to observe CFE in other-age faces for both attention conditions. In summary, we found (i) divided attention, relative to focused attention, can eliminate the OAB in face recognition by reducing the performance of the own-age face recognition; and (ii) the holistic processing of the own-age faces is impaired by the divided attention so that the own-age face recognition performance is reduced and the OAB of face recognition emerged.