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Bilingual environments provide a commonplace example of increased complexity and uncertainty. Learning multiple languages entails mastery of a larger and more variable range of sounds, words, syntactic structures, pragmatic conventions, and more complex mapping of linguistic information to objects in the world. Recent research suggests that bilingual learners demonstrate fundamental variation in how they explore and learn from their environment, which may derive from this increased complexity. In particular, the increased complexity and variability of bilingual environments may broaden the focus of learners' attention, laying a different attentional foundation for learning. In this review, we introduce a novel framework, with accompanying empirical evidence, for understanding how early learners may adapt to a more complex environment, drawing on bilingualism as an example. Three adaptations, each relevant to the demands of abstracting structure from a complex environment, are introduced. Each adaptation is discussed in the context of empirical evidence attesting to shifts in basic psychological processes in bilingual learners. This evidence converges on the notion that bilingual learners may explore their environment more broadly. Downstream consequences of broader sampling for perception and learning are discussed. Finally, recommendations for future research to expand the scientific narrative on the impact of diverse environments on learning are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Bilingualism has been shown to modify infants' responses in a range of domains. In particular, early bilingual experience is associated with greater flexibility and openness in infant perception and learning. In this study, we investigated whether bilingual infants demonstrate more fundamental differences in how they explore their environment in ways that could contribute to greater openness. Specifically, we investigated whether bilingual infants orient more rapidly to new information. Capitalizing on a classic paradigm by Fantz (1964), monolingual and bilingual infants (5-6 months and 8-9 months) were simultaneously presented with familiar and novel stimuli. As they received increased exposure to the familiar and novel stimuli, monolingual infants demonstrated a null preference, followed by a novelty preference, as previously evidenced in Fantz's study. In contrast, an orientation toward novelty emerged more readily in bilingual infants. Characteristics of a bilingual environment that may modulate the allocation of attention toward novelty are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Most existing studies on racial bias reduction have used short-term interracial interaction interventions with fleeting effects. The current natural experiment examined whether daily interactions with other-race nannies relate to reduced racial bias in the preschool years. We capitalized on a unique child-rearing situation in Singapore whereby children are often cared for by other-race nannies since infancy. Singaporean Chinese 3- to 6-year-olds (N = 100) completed explicit and implicit racial bias measures assessing their preferential bias favoring own-race adults over adults of their nannies' race. Differential findings were obtained for children's explicit and implicit racial bias. Extensiveness, but not mere presence, of other-race nanny experience was associated with lower levels of explicit racial bias in children. In contrast, neither presence nor extensiveness of other-race nanny experience was associated with children's implicit racial bias. Together, these findings suggest that long-term and extensive contact with an other-race caregiver could have subtle mitigating effects on children's explicit, but not implicit, racial bias., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many children receive language input through face coverings. The impact of face coverings for children's abilities to understand language remains unclear. Past research with monolingual children suggests that hearing words through surgical masks does not disrupt word recognition, but hearing words through transparent face shields proves more challenging. In this study, we investigated effects of different face coverings (surgical masks and transparent face shields) on language comprehension in bilingual children. Three-year-old English-Mandarin bilingual children (N = 28) heard familiar words in both English and Mandarin spoken through transparent face shields, surgical masks, and without masks. When tested in English, children recognized words presented without a mask and through a surgical mask, but did not recognize words presented with transparent face shields, replicating past findings with monolingual children. In contrast, when tested in Mandarin, children recognized words presented without a mask, through a surgical mask, and through a transparent face shield. Results are discussed in terms of specific properties of English and Mandarin that may elicit different effects for transparent face shields. Overall, the present findings suggest that face coverings, and in particular, surgical masks do not disrupt spoken word recognition in young bilingual children., (© 2023 The Authors. Infancy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Congress of Infant Studies.)

Faces can be categorized along various dimensions including gender or race, an ability developing in infancy. Infant categorization studies have focused on facial attributes in isolation, but the interaction between these attributes remains poorly understood. Experiment 1 examined gender categorization of other-race faces in 9- and 12-month-old White infants. Nine- and 12-month-olds were familiarized with Asian male or female faces, and tested with a novel exemplar from the familiarized category paired with a novel exemplar from a novel category. Both age groups showed novel category preferences for novel Asian female faces after familiarization with Asian male faces, but showed no novel category preference for novel Asian male faces after familiarization with Asian female faces. This categorization asymmetry was not due to a spontaneous preference hindering novel category reaction (Experiment 2), and both age groups displayed difficulty discriminating among male, but not female, other-race faces (Experiment 3). These results indicate that category formation for male other-race faces is mediated by categorical perception. Overall, the findings suggest that even by 12 months of age, infants are not fully able to form gender category representations of other-race faces, responding categorically to male, but not female, other-race faces., (© 2022 The Authors. British Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Psychological Society.)

This study examined 3.5- and 6-month-old infants' visual preferences for individuals from different age groups: adults versus infants. Unlike previous studies that only studied faces, here we included bodies, which are as frequent as faces in our environment, and highly salient, and in consequence, may play a role in identifying social categories and driving social preferences. In particular, we studied three salient dimensions along which individuals of different ages differ: body length, body typology, and face typology. In Experiment 1, adult and infant stimuli were presented in real proportions, differing both in body length and face typology, and infants preferred the adult stimuli. Experiment 2 demonstrated that given identical adult stimuli, which differ only in body length, infants attended more to the longer stimuli. In Experiment 3, infant and adult stimuli were matched on body length with the infant stimuli having larger heads, and infants preferred the infant stimuli. Experiment 4 measured infant visual preference for infant or adult bodies in the absence of face information, and found that 4-month-olds attended more to the infant bodies. Experiment 5 measured infants' sensitivity to matching or mismatching faces and bodies based on age, and infants demonstrated a preference for the incongruent stimuli (i.e., adult head with an infant body). Altogether these studies show that while face typology and body size are main drivers of infant visual preference for adults, when body typology information is provided for bodies matched in size, infant preference shifts towards their peers. Thus, our results suggest that infants have early developing age-based body representations, and that body information shifts their pattern of visual behavior from a visual preference for adult faces, to a visual preference for full-body peers., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Over their first year of life, infants express visual preferences for own- versus other-race faces. This developmental transition has primarily been investigated in monoracial societies where infants have limited personal or societal contact with other races. We investigated whether previously reported visual preferences for race generalize to a multiracial society (i.e., Singapore). In addition, we investigated effects of caregiver race on visual preferences for race. In Experiment 1, race preferences were measured at 3, 6, and 9 months of age for own-race (Chinese) versus other-race (Indian) faces in infants with no regular interaction with Indian-race individuals. Singaporean infants displayed a significant visual preference for Indian-race faces at each age group. Furthermore, infants raised with other-race caregivers demonstrated an age-related increase in other-race visual preferences. The visual preferences of infants for other-race faces were predicted by the extent of other-race contact. In Experiment 2, we confirmed that an other-race visual preference was not exclusive to Indian faces in a sample of 6-month-old Singaporean Chinese infants who demonstrated a similar other-race visual preference for Caucasian faces over Chinese faces. Findings are discussed in terms of the influence of other-race contact on visual preferences for race in infants., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

COVID-19 has modified numerous aspects of children's social environments. Many children are now spoken to through a mask. There is little empirical evidence attesting to the effects of masked language input on language processing. In addition, not much is known about the effects of clear masks (i.e., transparent face shields) versus opaque masks on language comprehension in children. In the current study, 2-year-old infants were tested on their ability to recognize familiar spoken words in three conditions: words presented with no mask, words presented through a clear mask, and words presented through an opaque mask. Infants were able to recognize familiar words presented without a mask and when hearing words through opaque masks, but not when hearing words through clear masks. Findings suggest that the ability of infants to recover spoken language input through masks varies depending on the surface properties of the mask., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The current study examined the influence of everyday perceptual experience with infant and child faces on the shaping of visual biases for faces in 3.5-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. In Experiment 1, infants were presented with pairs of photographs of unfamiliar child and infant faces. Four groups with differential experience with infant and child faces were composed from parents' reports of daily exposure with infants and children (no experience, infant face experience, child face experience, and both infant and child face experience) to assess influence of experience on face preferences. Results showed that infants from all age groups displayed a bias for the novel category of faces in relation to their previous exposure to infant and child faces. In Experiment 2, this pattern of visual attention was reversed in infants presented with pictures of personally familiar child faces (i.e., older siblings) compared with unfamiliar infant faces, especially in older infants. These results suggest that allocation of attention for novelty can supersede familiarity biases for faces depending on experience and highlight that multiple factors drive infant visual behavior in responding to the social world., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Prior research has suggested that bilingual children demonstrate reduced social bias relative to their monolingual peers. In particular, they exhibit less implicit bias against racial outgroups. However, the cognitive determinants of racial bias in bilingual children remain unclear. In the current study, relationships between racial bias and three cognitive factors (inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and perspective-taking ability), along with language proficiency and parental education, were investigated in a sample of bilingual preschoolers (N = 55). Children were bilingual learners of English and Mandarin. Results demonstrated that implicit bias was predicted by cognitive flexibility, independent of variation in inhibitory control, second language vocabulary, perspective taking, and parental education. In contrast, explicit bias was predicted by parental education alone and not by cognitive or linguistic factors. Findings suggest that increased cognitive flexibility, often thought to be an outgrowth of bilingual experience, may also be associated with a reduction in implicit bias. Findings are discussed in terms of specific mechanisms that may link cognitive factors, bilingualism, and racial bias., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Age-related differences in explicit and implicit racial biases in Black Cameroonians (N = 187, 94 females) were investigated using a cross-sectional design. Participants ranged in age from 3 to 30 years, and were from middle-to-high income families in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Biases were assessed by comparing attitudes toward Blacks with those toward Whites and Chinese. Implicit pro-Black/anti-other-race (White and Chinese) biases were present at age 4, in contrast to anti-Black/pro-other-race biases, which were observed among 9- to 30-year-olds. In addition, explicit pro-Black/anti-other-race biases that were present at age 4 were no longer evident by age 7. These findings provide a detailed picture of age-related differences in racial biases in an understudied part of the world that can inform theories regarding the development of racial biases, as well as efforts to reduce such biases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Prior research has reported developmental change in how infants represent categories of other-race faces (Developmental Science 19 (2016) 362-371). In particular, Caucasian 6-month-olds were shown to represent African versus Asian face categories, whereas Caucasian 9 month-olds represented different classes of other-race faces in one category, inclusive of African and Asian faces but exclusive of Caucasian faces. The current investigation sought to provide stronger evidence that is convergent with these findings by asking whether infants will generalize looking-time responsiveness from one to another other-race category. In Experiment 1, an experimental group of Caucasian 6-month-olds was familiarized with African (or Asian) faces and then given a novel category preference test with an Asian (or African) face versus a Caucasian face, while a control group of Caucasian 6-month-olds viewed the test faces without prior familiarization. Infants in the experimental group divided attention between the test faces and infants in the control group did not manifest a spontaneous preference. Experiment 2 used the same procedure, but was conducted with Caucasian 9-month-olds. Infants in the experimental group displayed a robust preference for Caucasian faces when considered against the finding that infants in the control group displayed a spontaneous preference for other-race faces. The results offer confirmation that between 6 and 9 months, infants transition to representing own-race versus other-race face categories, with the latter inclusive of multiple other-race face classes with clear perceptual differences. Computational modeling of infant responding suggests that the developmental change is rooted in the statistics of experience with majority versus minority group faces., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Past studies suggest that monolingual and bilingual infants respond differently to race information in face discrimination and social learning tasks. In particular, bilingual infants have been shown to respond more similarly to own- and other-race individuals, in contrast to monolingual infants, who respond preferentially to own-race individuals. In the current study, we investigated monolingual and bilingual sensitivity to speaker race in spoken word recognition. Two-year-old infants were presented with spoken words in association with visual targets. Words were presented in association with own- or other-race actors and were either correctly pronounced or mispronounced. Measuring speech-responsive eye movements to visual targets, we analyzed fixation to visual targets for correct and mispronounced words in relation to speaker race for each group. When presented with own-race speakers, both monolingual and bilingual infants associated correctly pronounced labels, but not mispronounced labels, with visual targets. When presented with other-race speakers, bilingual infants responded similarly. In contrast, monolingual infants did not fixate visual targets regardless of whether words were correctly pronounced or mispronounced by an other-race speaker. Results are discussed in terms of the sensitivities of bilingual and monolingual infants to novelty, learned associations between race and language, and prior social experiences., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Most prior studies of the other-race categorization advantage have been conducted in predominantly monoracial societies. This limitation has left open the question of whether tendencies to more rapidly and accurately categorize other-race faces reflect social categorization (own-race vs. other-race) or perceptual expertise (frequent exposure vs. infrequent exposure). To address this question, we tested Malay and Malaysian Chinese children (9- and 10-year-olds) and adults on (a) own-race faces (i.e., Malay faces for Malay participants and Chinese faces for Malaysian Chinese participants), (b) high-frequency other-race faces (i.e., Chinese faces for Malay participants and Malay faces for Malaysian Chinese participants), and (c) low-frequency other-race faces (i.e., Caucasian faces). Whereas the other-race categorization advantage was in evidence in the accuracy data of Malay adults, other aspects of performance were supportive of either the social categorization or perceptual expertise accounts and were dependent on the race (Malay vs. Chinese) or age (child vs. adult) of the participants. Of particular significance is the finding that Malaysian Chinese children and adults categorized own-race Chinese faces more rapidly than high-frequency other-race Malay faces. Thus, in accord with a perceptual expertise account, the other-race categorization advantage seems to be more an advantage for racial categories of lesser experience regardless of whether these face categories are own-race or other-race., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Bilingual children have been shown to differ from monolingual children in several domains of human cognition. Comparatively few studies have investigated social-interactional processes in bilingual populations. Here, we investigated whether monolingual and bilingual children demonstrate similar susceptibility to an aspect of social functioning with broad societal reach: racial bias. We measured both implicit and explicit biases against African race individuals in 2 groups of monolingual preschoolers (native speakers of English or Chinese) and in 2 groups of English-Chinese bilingual preschoolers (tested in English or Chinese; total N = 160). We found that monolingual children demonstrated greater implicit bias against African race individuals than bilingual children, independent of their native language. Monolingual Chinese children demonstrated greater explicit bias than bilingual children, although monolingual English children's explicit bias scores did not differ from those of bilingual children. Findings are discussed in terms of cognitive and experiential mechanisms that may link bilingualism and racial bias. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptual narrowing occurs in human infants for other-race faces. A paired-comparison task measuring infant looking time was used to investigate the hypothesis that adding emotional expressiveness to other-race faces would help infants break through narrowing and reinstate other-race face recognition. Experiment 1 demonstrated narrowing for White infants viewing neutral Asian faces: whereas 3-month-olds differentiated Asian faces, 6-month-olds did not. Experiment 2 showed that White 6-month-olds differentiated the same Asian faces depicted with angry or happy expressions. Experiments 3 and 4 yielded comparable results for 6- and 9-month-olds tested with Black faces (i.e., narrowing with neutral faces, reinstatement of sensitivity when the faces were presented with emotion). Experiment 5 showed that White 6-month-olds did not differentiate inverted angry or happy Asian faces, and that White 9-month-olds did not differentiate inverted angry or happy Black faces. Looking time during familiarization did not differ for upright neutral and emotional faces, indicating that the expressions did not yield more salient stimuli. Also, consistent with the inversion findings, analyses of the low-level image properties as well as equivalent pairwise similarity ratings obtained from White adults for the neutral and emotional faces indicated that the expressions did not simply create more discriminable stimuli. Without support for the lower-level accounts, we discuss the possibility that the infants processed the communicative intent of the expressions. Because angry faces pose threat and happy faces invite affiliation, expression may create motivation to individuate. Overall, the data suggest that early perceptual-social linkage in face representation can arise via a social-to-perceptual pathway. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A body of research is reviewed that has investigated how infants respond to social category information in faces based on differential experience. Whereas some aspects of behavioral performance (visual preference, discrimination, and scanning) are consistent with traditional models of perceptual development (induction, maintenance, and attunement), other aspects (category formation, association with valence, and selective learning) suggest the need for an account that links perceptual with social-emotional processing. We also consider how responding to social categories in infancy may anticipate subsequent responding to these categories in childhood and adulthood., (© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Bilingualism exerts early and pervasive effects on cognition, observable in infancy. Thus far, investigations of infant bilingual cognition have focused on sensitivity to visual memory, executive function, and linguistic sensitivity. Much less research has focused on how bilingualism impacts processing of social cues. The present study sought to investigate whether bilingualism modulates the expression of one aspect of social processing: early racial bias. Using a gaze-following paradigm, we investigated whether 18- to 20-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants favored their own race. Results demonstrated that monolingual infants favored their own race in following a model whose direction of gaze signaled an event. In contrast, bilingual infants demonstrated race-neutral gaze-following patterns, relying more heavily on the reliability of the behavior of the model over race. Findings suggest that bilingualism may have protective effects against the early emergence of racial bias., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

We investigated the developmental courses of both implicit and explicit racial biases in relation to the perceived social status of outgroups. We did so by assessing these biases among Chinese participants ( N = 200, age range from 4- to 19-year-olds) toward 2 different other-race groups that differ in terms of perceived social status (i.e., Whites and Blacks). At the youngest age, children showed both implicit anti-White and anti-Black bias at similar levels. However, these biases had different patterns of age-related change: implicit anti-Black bias remained strong and stable over time, whereas implicit anti-White bias declined after age 10. For explicit bias, children showed a decline in anti-Black and anti-White bias. Implicit and explicit biases were uncorrelated at all ages. The observed age-related changes demonstrate that it is possible for patterns of biases toward different races to diverge with age, and that perceived social status may contribute to the differential developmental patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This study tracked the long-term effect of perceptual individuation training on reducing 5-year-old Chinese children's (N = 95, M age  = 5.64 years) implicit pro-Asian/anti-Black racial bias. Initial training to individuate other-race Black faces, followed by supplementary training occurring 1 week later, resulted in a long-term reduction of pro-Asian/anti-Black bias (70 days). In contrast, training Chinese children to recognize White or Asian faces had no effect on pro-Asian/anti-Black bias. Theoretically, the finding that individuation training can have a long-term effect on reducing implicit racial bias in preschoolers suggests that a developmentally early causal linkage between perceptual and social processing of faces is not a transitory phenomenon. Practically, the data point to an effective intervention method for reducing implicit racism in young children., (© 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Studies on facial attractiveness in human adults, infants, and newborns have consistently reported a visual preference for faces rated as attractive compared with faces rated as unattractive. Biological accounts of facial attractiveness have typically presented such preferences as arising from adaptations for mate choice or as by-products of general sensory bias. In this cross-species study, we examined whether explicit ratings of attractiveness made by human judges would predict implicit visual preferences in other humans and also in rhesus macaques and, if they do, whether such preferences would extend beyond conspecific faces. Results showed that human ratings of attractiveness can predict implicit preferences in nonhuman primates (macaque monkeys; Macaca mulatta ). However, we also found a species-specific effect of face attractiveness in which humans showed a visual preference for human faces (but not macaque faces) rated as attractive, and macaques displayed a visual preference for macaque faces (but not human faces) rated as attractive. Overall, the findings suggest that attentional bias toward attractive faces arises neither from an exclusive operation of mate choice adaptation mechanisms nor from the sole influence of a general sensory bias, but rather reflects their interaction. The influence of a general sensory bias may be modulated by the categorization of a face as conspecific or heterospecific, leading to species-specific preference for attractive faces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Using a composite-face paradigm, we examined the holistic processing induced by Asian faces, Caucasian faces, and monkey faces with human Asian participants in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge whether the upper halves of two faces successively presented were the same or different. A composite-face effect was found for Asian faces and Caucasian faces, but not for monkey faces. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to judge whether the lower halves of the two faces successively presented were the same or different. A composite-face effect was found for monkey faces as well as for Asian faces and Caucasian faces. Collectively, these results reveal that own-species (i.e., own-race and other-race) faces engage holistic processing in both upper and lower halves of the face, but other-species (i.e., monkey) faces engage holistic processing only when participants are asked to match the lower halves of the face. The findings are discussed in the context of a region-based holistic processing account for the species-specific effect in face recognition., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Prior reviews of infant face processing have emphasized how infants respond to faces in general. This review highlights how infants come to respond differentially to social categories of faces based on differential experience, with a focus on race and gender. We examine six different behaviors: preference, recognition, scanning, category formation, association with emotion, and selective learning. Although some aspects of infant responding to face race and gender may be accounted for by traditional models of perceptual development, other aspects suggest the need for a broader model that links perceptual development with social and emotional development. We also consider how responding to face race and gender in infancy may presage responding to these categories beyond infancy and discuss how social biases favoring own-race and female faces are formed.

This research investigated the relation between racial categorization and implicit racial bias in majority and minority children. Chinese and Indian 3- to 7-year-olds from Singapore (N = 158) categorized Chinese and Indian faces by race and had their implicit and explicit racial biases measured. Majority Chinese children, but not minority Indian children, showed implicit bias favoring own race. Regardless of ethnicity, children's racial categorization performance correlated positively with implicit racial bias. Also, Chinese children, but not Indian children, displayed explicit bias favoring own race. Furthermore, children's explicit bias was unrelated to racial categorization performance and implicit bias. The findings support a perceptual-social linkage in the emergence of implicit racial bias and have implications for designing programs to promote interracial harmony., (© 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

Although prior research has established that perceptual narrowing reflects the influence of experience on the development of face and speech processing, it is unclear whether narrowing in the two domains is related. A within-participant design (N = 72) was used to investigate discrimination of own- and other-race faces and native and non-native speech sounds in 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. For face and speech discrimination, whereas 3-month-olds discriminated own-race faces and native speech sounds as well as other-race faces and non-native speech sounds, older infants discriminated only own-race faces and native speech sounds. Narrowing in face and narrowing in speech were not correlated at 6 months, negatively correlated at 9 months, and positively correlated at 12 months. The findings reveal dynamic developmental changes in the relation between modalities during the first year of life., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Infants typically see more own-race faces than other-race faces. Existing evidence shows that this difference in face race experience has profound consequences for face processing: as early as 6 months of age, infants scan own- and other-race faces differently and display superior recognition for own- relative to other-race faces. However, it is unclear whether scanning of own-race faces is related to the own-race recognition advantage in infants. To bridge this gap in the literature, the current study used eye tracking to investigate the relation between own-race face scanning and recognition in 6- and 9-month-old Asian infants (N = 82). The infants were familiarized with dynamic own- and other-race faces, and then their face recognition was tested with static face images. Both age groups recognized own- but not other-race faces. Also, regardless of race, the more infants scanned the eyes of the novel versus familiar faces at test, the better their face-recognition performance. In addition, both 6- and 9-month-olds fixated significantly longer on the nose of own-race faces, and greater fixation on the nose during test trials correlated positively with individual novelty preference scores in the own- but not other-race condition. The results suggest that some aspects of the relation between recognition and scanning are independent of differential experience with face race, whereas other aspects are affected by such experience. More broadly, the findings imply that scanning and recognition may become linked during infancy at least in part through the influence of perceptual experience., (© 2018 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Differential experience leads infants to have perceptual processing advantages for own- over other-race faces, but whether this experience has downstream consequences is unknown. Three experiments examined whether 7-month-olds (range = 5.9-8.5 months; N = 96) use gaze from own- versus other-race adults to anticipate events. When gaze predicted an event's occurrence with 100% reliability, 7-month-olds followed both adults equally; with 25% (chance) reliability, neither was followed. However, with 50% (uncertain) reliability, infants followed own- over other-race gaze. Differential face race experience may thus affect how infants use social cues from own- versus other-race adults for learning. Such findings suggest that infants integrate online statistical reliability information with prior knowledge of own versus other race to guide social interaction and learning., (© 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

We used a novel intermodal association task to examine whether infants associate own- and other-race faces with music of different emotional valences. Three- to 9-month-olds saw a series of neutral own- or other-race faces paired with happy or sad musical excerpts. Three- to 6-month-olds did not show any specific association between face race and music. At 9 months, however, infants looked longer at own-race faces paired with happy music than at own-race faces paired with sad music. Nine-month-olds also looked longer at other-race faces paired with sad music than at other-race faces paired with happy music. These results indicate that infants with nearly exclusive own-race face experience develop associations between face race and music emotional valence in the first year of life. The potential implications of such associations for developing racial biases in early childhood are discussed., (© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Children's experiences with differently aged faces changes in the course of development. During infancy, most faces encountered are adult, however as children mature, exposure to child faces becomes more extensive. Does this change in experience influence preference for differently aged faces? The preferences of children for adult versus child, and adult versus infant faces were investigated. Caucasian 3- to 6-year-olds and adults were presented with adult/child and adult/infant face pairs which were either Caucasian or Asian (race consistent within pairs). Younger children (3 to 4 years) preferred adults over children, whereas older children (5 to 6 years) preferred children over adults. This preference was only detected for Caucasian faces. These data support a "here and now" model of the development of face age processing from infancy to childhood. In particular, the findings suggest that growing experience with peers influences age preferences and that race impacts on these preferences. In contrast, adults preferred infants and children over adults when the faces were Caucasian or Asian, suggesting an increasing influence of a baby schema, and a decreasing influence of race. The different preferences of younger children, older children, and adults also suggest discontinuity and the possibility of different mechanisms at work during different developmental periods.

Adult perceivers segregate figure from ground based on image cues such as small size and main axis orientation. The current study examined whether infants can use such cues to perceive figure-ground segregation. Three- to 7-month-olds were familiarized with a pie-shaped stimulus in which some pieces formed a + and other pieces formed an x. The infants were then presented with a novelty preference test pairing the + and x. The bases for the pieces forming the + or x were size and orientation (Experiment 1), size (Experiment 2), and orientation (Experiment 3). In each experiment, infants responded as if they recognized as familiar the shape specified by small size, main axis orientation, or their combination. Control conditions showed that infant performance could not be attributed to spontaneous preference. The findings suggest that infants can achieve figure-ground segregation based on some of the same cues used by adults., Competing Interests: Disclosure Statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Human adults show an attentional bias towards fearful faces, an adaptive behaviour that relies on amygdala function. This attentional bias emerges in infancy between 5 and 7 months, but the underlying developmental mechanism is unknown. To examine possible precursors, we investigated whether 3.5-, 6- and 12-month-old infants show facilitated detection of fearful faces in noise, compared to happy faces. Happy or fearful faces, mixed with noise, were presented to infants ( N = 192), paired with pure noise. We applied multivariate pattern analyses to several measures of infant looking behaviour to derive a criterion-free, continuous measure of face detection evidence in each trial. Analyses of the resulting psychometric curves supported the hypothesis of a detection advantage for fearful faces compared to happy faces, from 3.5 months of age and across all age groups. Overall, our data show a readiness to detect fearful faces (compared to happy faces) in younger infants that developmentally precedes the previously documented attentional bias to fearful faces in older infants and adults., (© 2017 The Author(s).)

Although most of the faces we encounter daily are moving ones, much of what we know about face processing and its development is based on studies using static faces that emphasize holistic processing as the hallmark of mature face processing. Here the authors examined the effects of facial movements on face processing developmentally in children (8-year-olds), adolescents (12-year-olds), and adults (20-year-olds). In particular, the composite face effect was used to measure the influence of facial movements on part-based versus holistic processing after participants had viewed either a moving or static face in a within-subject design. Experiment 1 examined elastic facial movement (i.e., blinking and chewing). The results showed that children, adolescents, and adults exhibited a significantly smaller composite effect after viewing a moving face than after viewing a static face. This result indicates that elastic facial movement facilitates part-based face processing from at least 8 years of age onward. Experiment 2 examined rigid facial movement (i.e., head turning) and revealed that it too facilitates part-based face processing in children, adolescents, and adults. The results taken together suggest that contrary to the prevailing view, facial movements facilitate part-based, not holistic, face processing in children, adolescents, and adults. The findings call for revision in the conventional way of thinking about what constitutes the developmental trajectory toward mature face processing and also point to the importance of using more naturalistic moving face stimuli to study face processing and its development. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

The visual preferences of infants for adult versus infant faces were investigated. Caucasian 3.5- and 6-month-olds were presented with Caucasian adult versus infant face pairs and Asian adult versus infant face pairs, in both upright and inverted orientations. Both age groups showed a visual preference for upright adult over infant faces when the faces were Caucasian, but not when they were Asian. The preference is unlikely to have arisen because of low-level perceptual features because: (1) no preference was observed for the inverted stimuli, (2) no differences were observed in adult similarity ratings of the upright infant-adult face pairs from the two races, and (3) no differences between the infant and adult faces were observed across races in an image-based analysis of salience. The findings are discussed in terms of the social attributes of faces that are learned from experience and what this implies for developmental accounts of a recognition advantage for adult faces in particular and models of face processing more generally.

Infants have asymmetrical exposure to different types of faces (e.g., more human than other-species, more female than male, and more own-race than other-race). What are the developmental consequences of such experiential asymmetry? Here we review recent advances in research on the development of cross-race face processing. The evidence suggests that greater exposure to own- than other-race faces in infancy leads to developmentally early perceptual differences in visual preference, recognition, category formation, and scanning of own- and other-race faces. Further, such perceptual differences in infancy may be associated with the emergence of implicit racial bias, consistent with a Perceptual-Social Linkage Hypothesis. Current and future work derived from this hypothesis may lay an important empirical foundation for the development of intervention programs to combat the early occurrence of implicit racial bias.

Two studies with preschool-age children examined the effectiveness of perceptual individuation training at reducing racial bias (Study 1, N = 32; Study 2, N = 56). We found that training preschool-age children to individuate other-race faces resulted in a reduction in implicit racial bias while mere exposure to other-race faces produced no such effect. We also showed that neither individuation training nor mere exposure reduced explicit racial bias. Theoretically, our findings provide strong evidence for a causal link between individual-level face processing and implicit racial bias, and are consistent with the newly proposed perceptual-social linkage hypothesis. Practically, our findings suggest that offering children experiences that allow them to increase their expertise in processing individual other-race faces will help reduce their implicit racial bias. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Human adults and infants show a preference for average faces, which could stem from a general processing mechanism and may be shared among primates. However, little is known about preference for facial averageness in monkeys. We used a comparative developmental approach and eye-tracking methodology to assess visual attention in human and macaque infants to faces naturally varying in their distance from a prototypical face. In Experiment 1, we examined the preference for faces relatively close to or far from the prototype in 12-month-old human infants with human adult female faces. Infants preferred faces closer to the average than faces farther from it. In Experiment 2, we measured the looking time of 3-month-old rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) viewing macaque faces varying in their distance from the prototype. Like human infants, macaque infants looked longer to faces closer to the average. In Experiments 3 and 4, both species were presented with unfamiliar categories of faces (i.e., macaque infants tested with adult macaque faces; human infants and adults tested with infant macaque faces) and showed no prototype preferences, suggesting that the prototypicality effect is experience-dependent. Overall, the findings suggest a common processing mechanism across species, leading to averageness preferences in primates.

Early multisensory perceptual experiences shape the abilities of infants to perform socially-relevant visual categorization, such as the extraction of gender, age, and emotion from faces. Here, we investigated whether multisensory perception of gender is influenced by infant-directed (IDS) or adult-directed (ADS) speech. Six-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants saw side-by-side silent video-clips of talking faces (a male and a female) and heard either a soundtrack of a female or a male voice telling a story in IDS or ADS. Infants participated in only one condition, either IDS or ADS. Consistent with earlier work, infants displayed advantages in matching female relative to male faces and voices. Moreover, the new finding that emerged in the current study was that extraction of gender from face and voice was stronger at 6 months with ADS than with IDS, whereas at 9 and 12 months, matching did not differ for IDS versus ADS. The results indicate that the ability to perceive gender in audiovisual speech is influenced by speech manner. Our data suggest that infants may extract multisensory gender information developmentally earlier when looking at adults engaged in conversation with other adults (i.e., ADS) than when adults are directly talking to them (i.e., IDS). Overall, our findings imply that the circumstances of social interaction may shape early multisensory abilities to perceive gender., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

We examined category formation for faces differing in age in 9- and 12-month-olds, and the influence of exposure to infant faces on such ability. Infants were familiarized with adult or infant faces, and then tested with a novel exemplar from the familiarized category paired with a novel exemplar from a novel category (Experiment 1). Both age groups formed discrete categories of adult and infant faces, but exposure to infant faces in everyday life did not modulate performance. The same task was conducted with child versus infant faces (Experiment 2). Whereas 9-month-olds preferred infant faces after familiarization with child faces, but not child faces after familiarization with infant faces, 12-month-olds formed discrete categories of child and infant faces. Moreover, more exposure to infant faces correlated with higher novel category preference scores when infants were familiarized with infant faces in 12-month-olds, but not 9-month-olds. The 9-month-old asymmetry did not reflect spontaneous preference for infant over child faces (Experiment 3). These findings indicate that 9- and 12-month-olds can form age-based categories of faces. The ability of 12-month-olds to form separate child and infant categories suggests that they have a more exclusive representation of face age, one that may be influenced by prior experience with infant faces., (© 2016 The British Psychological Society.)

Infants can form object categories based on perceptual cues, but their ability to form categories based on differential experience is less clear. Here we examined whether infants filter through perceptual differences among faces from different other-race classes and represent them as a single other-race class different only from own-race faces. We used a familiarization/novelty-preference procedure to investigate category formation for two other-race face classes (Black vs. Asian) by White 6- and 9-month-olds. The data indicated that while White 6-month-olds categorically represented the distinction between Black and Asian faces, White 9-month-olds formed a broad other-race category inclusive of Black and Asian faces, but exclusive of own-race White faces. The findings provide evidence that narrowing can occur for mental processes other than discrimination: category formation is also affected. The results suggest that frequency of experience with own-race versus other-race classes of faces may propel infants to contrast own-race faces with other-race faces, but not different classes of other-race faces with each other., (© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

This research used an Implicit Racial Bias Test to investigate implicit racial biases among 3- to 5-year-olds and adult participants in China (N = 213) and Cameroon (N = 257). In both cultures, participants displayed high levels of racial biases that remained stable between 3 and 5 years of age. Unlike adults, young children's implicit racial biases were unaffected by the social status of the other-race groups. Also, unlike adults, young children displayed overt explicit racial biases, and these biases were dissociated from their implicit biases. The results provide strong evidence for the early emergence of implicit racial biases and point to the need to reduce them in early childhood., (© 2015 The Authors. Child Development © 2015 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)

It has been well documented that people recognize and scan other-race faces differently from faces of their own race. The current study examined whether this cross-racial difference in face processing found in the typical population also exists in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants included 5- to 10-year-old children with ASD (n=29), typically developing (TD) children matched on chronological age (n=29), and TD children matched on nonverbal IQ (n=29). Children completed a face recognition task in which they were asked to memorize and recognize both own- and other-race faces while their eye movements were tracked. We found no recognition advantage for own-race faces relative to other-race faces in any of the three groups. However, eye-tracking results indicated that, similar to TD children, children with ASD exhibited a cross-racial face-scanning pattern: they looked at the eyes of other-race faces longer than at those of own-race faces, whereas they looked at the mouth of own-race faces longer than at that of other-race faces. The findings suggest that although children with ASD have difficulty with processing some aspects of faces, their ability to process face race information is relatively spared., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

One of the most salient social categories conveyed by human faces and voices is gender. We investigated the developmental emergence of the ability to perceive the coherence of auditory and visual attributes of gender in 6- and 9-month-old infants. Infants viewed two side-by-side video clips of a man and a woman singing a nursery rhyme and heard a synchronous male or female soundtrack. Results showed that 6-month-old infants did not match the audible and visible attributes of gender, and 9-month-old infants matched only female faces and voices. These findings indicate that the ability to perceive the multisensory coherence of gender emerges relatively late in infancy and that it reflects the greater experience that most infants have with female faces and voices.

We examined the effect of visual experience on the magnitude of a novel eye-size illusion: when the size of a face's frame is increased or decreased but eye size is unchanged, observers judge the size of the eyes to be different from that in the original face frame. In the current study, we asked Chinese and Caucasian participants to judge eye size in different pairs of faces and measured the magnitude of the illusion when the faces were own- or other-age (adult vs. infant faces) and when the faces were own- or other-race (Chinese vs. Caucasian faces). We found an other-age effect and an other-race effect with the eye-size illusion: The illusion was more pronounced with own-race and own-age faces than with other-race and other-age faces. These findings taken together suggest that visual experience with faces influences the magnitude of this novel illusion. Extensive experience with certain face categories strengthens the illusion in the context of these categories, but lack of it reduces the magnitude of the illusion. Our results further imply that holistic processing may play an important role in engendering the eye-size illusion., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The present study examined whether perceptual individuation training with other-race faces could reduce preschool children's implicit racial bias. We used an 'angry = outgroup' paradigm to measure Chinese children's implicit racial bias against African individuals before and after training. In Experiment 1, children between 4 and 6 years were presented with angry or happy racially ambiguous faces that were morphed between Chinese and African faces. Initially, Chinese children demonstrated implicit racial bias: they categorized happy racially ambiguous faces as own-race (Chinese) and angry racially ambiguous faces as other-race (African). Then, the children participated in a training session where they learned to individuate African faces. Children's implicit racial bias was significantly reduced after training relative to that before training. Experiment 2 used the same procedure as Experiment 1, except that Chinese children were trained with own-race Chinese faces. These children did not display a significant reduction in implicit racial bias. Our results demonstrate that early implicit racial bias can be reduced by presenting children with other-race face individuation training, and support a linkage between perceptual and social representations of face information in children., (© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Perceptual narrowing has been observed in human infants for monkey faces: 6-month-olds can discriminate between them, whereas older infants from 9 months of age display difficulty discriminating between them. The difficulty infants from 9 months have processing monkey faces has not been clearly identified. It could be due to the structural characteristics of monkey faces, particularly the key facial features that differ from human faces. The current study aimed to investigate whether the information conveyed by the eyes is of importance. We examined whether the presence of Caucasian human eyes in monkey faces allows recognition to be maintained in 6-month-olds and facilitates recognition in 9- and 12-month-olds. Our results revealed that the presence of human eyes in monkey faces maintains recognition for those faces at 6 months of age and partially facilitates recognition of those faces at 9 months of age, but not at 12 months of age. The findings are interpreted in the context of perceptual narrowing and suggest that the attenuation of processing of other-species faces is not reversed by the presence of human eyes., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Young infants are typically thought to prefer looking at smiling expressions. Although some accounts suggest that the preference is automatic and universal, we hypothesized that it is not rigid and may be influenced by other face dimensions, most notably the face's gender. Infants are sensitive to the gender of faces; for example, 3-month-olds raised by female caregivers typically prefer female over male faces. We presented neutral versus smiling pairs of faces from the same female or male individuals to 3.5-month-old infants (n = 25), controlling for low-level cues. Infants looked longer to the smiling face when faces were female but longer to the neutral face when faces were male, i.e., there was an effect of face gender on the looking preference for smiling. The results indicate that a preference for smiling in 3.5-month-olds is limited to female faces, possibly reflective of differential experience with male and female faces.

Current knowledge about face processing in infancy comes largely from studies using static face stimuli, but faces that infants see in the real world are mostly moving ones. To bridge this gap, 3-, 6-, and 9-month-old Asian infants (N = 118) were familiarized with either moving or static Asian female faces, and then their face recognition was tested with static face images. Eye-tracking methodology was used to record eye movements during the familiarization and test phases. The results showed a developmental change in eye movement patterns, but only for the moving faces. In addition, the more infants shifted their fixations across facial regions, the better their face recognition was, but only for the moving faces. The results suggest that facial movement influences the way faces are encoded from early in development., ((c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).)

We examined whether Asian individuals would show differential sensitivity to configural vs. featural changes to own- and other-race faces and whether such sensitivity would depend on whether the changes occurred in the upper vs. lower regions of the faces. We systematically varied the size of key facial features (eyes and mouth) of own-race Asian faces and other-race Caucasian faces, and the configuration (spacing) between the eyes and between the nose and mouth of the two types of faces. Results revealed that the other-race effect (ORE) is more pronounced when featural and configural spacing changes are in the upper region than in the lower region of the face. These findings reveal that information from the upper vs. lower region of the face contributes differentially to the ORE in face processing, and that processing of face race is influenced more by information location (i.e., upper vs. lower) than by information type (i.e., configural vs. featural).