Individual differences in the perception of women's faces.

It was shown that membership in age or sex categories affects the way in which an individual perceives a woman when presented with her photograph. It is contended that this is a demonstration of the influence of culturally defined roles upon perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A demonstration of bias in estimates of Negro ability.

Estimates of the probable performance of classmates on a forthcoming examination, made in a mixed white and Negro junior high school class, demonstrated a bias or systematic error, significant at the .01 level in the estimates of the white children of their Negro classmates, expecting them to do worse than they actually did. This finding is in line with expectations of most current social psychology; however, the effect is not of sufficient strength to be depended upon in all instances. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sustained effects of adaptation on the perception of familiar faces.

Figural aftereffects are commonly believed to be transient and to fade away in the course of milliseconds. We tested face aftereffects using familiar faces and found sustained effects lasting up to 1 week. In 3 experiments, participants were first exposed to distorted pictures of famous persons and then had to select the veridical face in a 2-alternative forced choice task. Veridicality aftereffects were found in a direction opposite to the adapting distortion; these effects generalized to other pictures of the same individual and also to pictures of celebrities that had not been shown during adaptation. The findings support hierarchical theories of norm-based face coding and suggest that face adaptation effects have a representational basis. They also point toward multiple timescales in the operation of adaptation mechanisms, thereby providing a link between high-level adaptation and more general aspects of neuro-cognitive plasticity, that is, learning and memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graduate education of Negro psychologists.

The "Council on Psychological Resources in the South was impressed with the dearth of psychologists in the South, particularly Negro psychologists" and appointed a committee "… to study the facts in this regard and to make recommendations for pertinent action." Fifty-six (98.2%) of fifty-seven graduate departments of psychology surveyed answered questionnaires concerning Negro psychologists receiving graduate degrees and the undergraduate origin of these students. "Negro personnel in psychology come in considerable proportion (one-third) from Negro undergraduate schools in the South." "In the process of bridging the gap between inadequate undergraduate training and high level graduate work, Howard University is making an exceptional contribution toward training in scientific and professional psychology." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Negro stereotype and perceptual accentuation.

3 hypotheses were tested: (1) There is no difference in the degree of personality stereotyping of Negro photographs varying widely in physiognomic Negroidness; (2) Anti-Negro judges exaggerate the personality stereotype of Negroes, whereas pro-Negro judges de-emphasize it; and (3) Both anti- and pro-Negro judges perceive the Negro as more Negroid in physiognomic traits than do neutral judges. The first 2 hypotheses were supported by the data. Although a comparison of the mean Negroidness scores for the 3 groups of judges supported the third hypothesis, the difference between the neutral group and the pro-Negro group was not statistically significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivations for research on the Negro: Comment.

Letter comments that the author compiled an anthology on the "Psychology of the Negro" and, in doing so, asked various contributors to describe the source of their interest in this problem. Since data of this type are in short supply, a sample of the replies received may be of general interest. These replies are grouped into the following types: theoretical and scholarly interest, exposure to problems, personal motives and values. Since several of the respondents mentioned a combination of factors, the classification is only heuristic. According to the author, from the replies, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the personal values and needs of some psychologists led to their study of the Negro. In addition, the reasons of general intellectual curiosity and the exposure to problems were important motivations for research in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detecting emotional faces and features in a visual search paradigm: Are faces special?

In 2 experiments, participants were presented schematic faces with emotional expressions (threatening, friendly) in a neutral-faces context or neutral expressions in an emotional-faces context. These conditions were compared with detection performance in displays containing key features of emotional faces not forming the perceptual gestalt of a face. Supporting the notion of a threat detection advantage, Experiment 1 found that threatening faces were faster detected than friendly faces, whereas no difference emerged between the corresponding feature conditions. Experiment 2 increased task difficulty with a backward masking procedure and found corresponding results. In neither of the studies was the threat detection advantage associated with reduced accuracy. However, features were, in general, detected faster than faces when task difficulty was high. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neurocognitive underpinnings of face perception: Further evidence of distinct person and group perception processes.

A model of social perception is presented and tested. The model is based on cognitive neuroscience models and proposes that the right cerebral hemisphere is more efficient at processing combinations of features whereas the left hemisphere is superior at identifying single features. These processes are hypothesized to produce person and group-based representations, respectively. Individuating or personalizing experience with an outgroup member was expected to facilitate the perception of the individuating features and inhibit the perception of the group features. In the presented study, participants were asked to learn about various ingroup and outgroup targets. Later, participants demonstrated that categorization response speeds to old targets were slower in the left hemisphere than in the right, particularly for outgroup members, as predicted. These findings are discussed for their relevance to models of social perception and stereotyping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The measurement of leadership in white and Negro women students.

A comparison of personality traits and other characteristics of leaders and non-leaders in two southern colleges for women, Agnes Scott for white and Spelman for Negro students, is made. The materials used are the Good-enough Speed-of-Association Test, the Bernreuter Personality Inventory, and other collateral information. Small, but statistically significant, differences exist between leaders and non-leaders within a college. These differences are "definitely and reliably greater than are the differences between the two races." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awareness of faces is modulated by their emotional meaning.

A central question in perception is how stimuli are selected for access to awareness. This study investigated the impact of emotional meaning on detection of faces using the attention blink paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that fearful faces were detected more frequently than neutral faces, and Experiment 2 revealed preferential detection of fearful faces compared with happy faces. To rule out image artifacts as a cause for these results, Experiment 3 manipulated the emotional meaning of neutral faces through fear conditioning and showed a selective increase in detection of conditioned faces. These results extend previous reports of preferential detection of emotional words or schematic objects and suggest that fear conditioning can modulate detection of formerly neutral stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Change in attitudes toward the Negro in a Southern university.

"Attitude toward the Negro… appears to be remarkably stable as far as group means are concerned. In view of the social tension prevalent in the South during the period 1955-1958, one might reasonably expect to find a change in attitude towards desegregation… . Contrary to such popular beliefs, no change… was found in comparing a random sample of students at the University of Texas in 1958 with a similar sample in 1955." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarian ideology in Negro college students.

Likert-like opinion-attitude scales of anti-Negro and anti-white ideologies, the California E scale (anti-Negro subscale omitted), F scale, and a revision of the PEC scale were administered to Negro students in colleges with primarily Negro enrollment. Intercorrelations were moderate and positive. Mean scores indicated group tendencies to disagree with ethnocentric and anti-white ideologies but to agree with authoritarian, anti-Negro, and conservative ideologies. Concluded that Negro middle class attempts "to identify with stereotyped white middleclass values and to dissociate itself from other Negroes." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early language behavior in Negro children and the testing of intelligence.

"Forty Negro children examined by a white examiner were found to have lowered language scores on third examination at two years of age. This was apparently due to lack of verbal responsiveness, rather than poor comprehension of language. This apparent early awareness of racial differences and loss of rapport has serious implications in the field of ethnic group psychology, particularly in the use of verbal items on intelligence testing." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desegregation and the intellectual performance of the Negro: Comment.

I should like to make three criticisms of Irwin Katz' timely and stimulating article, "Review of Evidence Relating to Effects of Desegregation on the Intellectual Performance of Negroes" (see record 1965-01781-001). My first criticism is that the author failed to include in his extensive bibliography reference to several pertinent studies/papers. My second criticism is directed against the author's failure to consider the possibility of hereditary differences between Negro and white children. My third criticism is directed toward the widespread tendency of psychologists to neglect the importance of heredity as a determinant of behavior, personality, and even of the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual search for faces with emotional expressions.

The goal of this review is to critically examine contradictory findings in the study of visual search for emotionally expressive faces. Several key issues are addressed: Can emotional faces be processed preattentively and guide attention? What properties of these faces influence search efficiency? Is search moderated by the emotional state of the observer? The authors argue that the evidence is consistent with claims that (a) preattentive search processes are sensitive to and influenced by facial expressions of emotion, (b) attention guidance is influenced by a dynamic interplay of emotional and perceptual factors, and (c) visual search for emotional faces is influenced by the emotional state of the observer to some extent. The authors also argue that the way in which contextual factors interact to determine search performance needs to be explored further to draw sound conclusions about the precise influence of emotional expressions on search efficiency. Methodological considerations (e.g., set size, distractor background, task set) and ecological limitations of the visual search task are discussed. Finally, specific recommendations are made for future research directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inside the Mind Reader's Tool Kit: Projection and Stereotyping in Mental State Inference.

Mental state inferences--judgments about what others think, want, and feel--are central to social life. Models of "mind reading" have considered main effects, including social projection and stereotyping, but have not specified the conditions that govern when these tools will be used. This article develops such a model, claiming that when perceivers assume an initial general sense of similarity to a target, they engage in greater projection and less stereotyping. Three studies featuring manipulations of similarity support this claim. Moreover, reaction time results shed light on the mechanisms underlying these effects. The proposed model gives a new view of the mind reader's tool kit and, more generally, raises questions about moderators of stereotyping and projection in social judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some Negro perceptions of psychologists: an observation on psychology's public relations.

Using 14 colored undergraduates given rudimentary training in interviewing, 51 Southern Negroes' perceptions of the general activities of psychologists and their specific work in the area of Negro-white relations were secured. The implication of these results for APA public relations is noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frequency of the Rorschach human-movement response in Negro and White emotionally disturbed children.

The study was concerned with testing the following hypotheses: (a) Emotionally disturbed, young Negro children produce more human-movement (M) responses on the Rorschach than do comparable white children; (b) emotionally disturbed Negro children show a decrease in M production as they approach adolescence, whereas comparable white children increase M production as they approach adolescence. The Ss, 197 Negro and 196 white emotionally disturbed children 5-17 yr. were administered a standard test battery which included the Rorschach. Results corroborated the hypotheses for Negro males. In addition, a significant increase in M production among emotionally disturbed Negro males 7-9 yr. was found. Implications of the findings and specific suggestions for further research were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coarse-to-fine encoding of spatial frequency information into visual short-term memory for faces but impartial decay.

Face perception studies investigated how spatial frequencies (SF) are extracted from retinal display while forming a perceptual representation, or their selective use during task-imposed categorization. Here we focused on the order of encoding low-spatial frequencies (LSF) and high-spatial frequencies (HSF) from perceptual representations into visual short-term memory (VSTM). We also investigated whether different SF-ranges decay from VSTM at different rates during a study-test stimulus-onset asynchrony. An old/new VSTM paradigm was used in which two broadband faces formed the positive set and the probes preserved either low or high SF ranges. Exposure time of 500 ms was sufficient to encode both HSF and LSF in the perceptual representation (experiment 1). Nevertheless, when the positive-set was exposed for 500 ms, LSF-probes were better recognized in VSTM compared with HSF-probes; this effect vanished at 800-ms exposure time (experiment 2). Backward masking the positive set exposed for 800 ms re-established the LSF-probes advantage (experiment 3). The speed of decay up to 10 seconds was similar for LSF- and HSF-probes (experiment 4). These results indicate that LSF are extracted and consolidated into VSTM faster than HSF, supporting a coarse-to-fine order, while the decay from VSTM is not governed by SF. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive styles and memory for faces.

Accuracy in the incidental recall of photographed human faces can be predicted from the S's cognitive styles and biases: (a) Ss who were field dependent on an embedded-figures test recalled more faces correctly than did the field independent; (b) Ss who were narrow categorizers on the Pettigrew Category-Width Scale had better recall than had broad categorizers; and (c) Ss who thought the photographed persons were relatively young did better than those who thought they were older. These 3 kinds of stylistic consistency were mutually independent. Some of these styles may determine memory for all sorts of stimuli and some may be relatively specific to memory for faces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)