Differential Experience and Recognition Memory for Faces

Abstract

Two recognition memory experiments using photographs of black, white, and Japanese faces as stimuli were performed. In Experiment I, white Ss showed most accurate recognition memory for white faces, next most accurate recognition for black faces, and least accurate memory for Japanese faces. In Experiment II, both white and black Ss were tested with all three groups of faces. Again, it was found that whites did better on white faces than on black faces and did least well on Japanese faces. Blacks, in contrast, did best on black faces, next best on white faces, and also did least well on Japanese faces. This interaction of race of 5 with race of pictured face points to differential prior experience with various kinds of faces as the basis for these differences in memory performance. More generally, these findings support the applicability of the concept of schema to the processes by which faces are discriminated, processed, stored, and remembered.