The role of age and ethnic group in face recognition memory: ERP evidence from a combined own-age and own-race bias study

Abstract

Young adult participants are known to more accurately remember faces from both their own age- and ethnic groups. The present study examined combined effects of such own-age and own-race biases by asking young Caucasian participants to learn and remember elderly and young Caucasian as well as elderly and young Asian faces. Neural correlates were assessed by recording event-related potentials (ERPs). Behavioral results indicated both an own-race bias for young but not elderly faces, and an own-age bias for Caucasian but not Asian faces. Importantly, no additional decrease in recognition memory for other-race/other-age faces was detected. An early parietal ERP old/new effect (300–500ms) was most pronounced for young Caucasian “in-group” faces, while the old/new effect in a later time window (500–800ms) was generally larger for own- as compared to other-race faces. In conclusion, these findings suggest at least partly different neural processes to accompany the own-race and own-age biases.