Equally attending but still not seeing : an eye-tracking study of change detection in own- and other-race faces

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate whether the faster change detection in own race faces in a change blindness paradigm, reported by Humphreys, Hodsoll and Campbell (2005, Visual Cognition, 12, 249-262) and explained in terms of people’s poorer ability to discriminate other race faces, may be explained by people’s preferential attention towards own race faces. The study by Humphreys et al. was replicated using the same stimuli, while participants’ eye movements were recorded. These revealed that there was no attentional bias towards own race faces (analysed in terms of fixation order, number and duration), but people still detected changes in own race faces faster than in other race faces. The current results therefore give further support for the original claim that people are less sensitive to changes made in other race faces, when own and other race faces are equally attended.