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There's a fair amount of research that suggests that the FFA (fusiform face area, where we supposedly process faces) is really just specialized for processing o

by kateray 16y ago

There's a fair amount of research that suggests that the FFA (fusiform face area, where we supposedly process faces) is really just specialized for processing objects that we're very familiar with. For example, bird-watchers' FFAs light up more when they're differentiating between birds, and I think they have increased repetition suppression too. Anyway, the theory behind that research is that we process faces differently because we're all very familiar with them, so it would make a lot of sense if this other-race effect is purely because Western Caucasians see Western Caucasian faces more and East Asians see East Asian faces more. I'd like to see the study done with people who are living in a country where their race is a tiny minority.

Towle_ 16y ago
I'd like to see the study done with people who are living in a country where their race is a tiny minority. You mean like people of East Asian descent in Finland? ;) I joke, but I'm also making a point. That's valuable if that's what they did, but we don't actually know if that's what they did; we don't know where their subjects grew up, not just their nationality but more importantly their immediate environment. We have no idea. The researchers make no attempt to detail those factors. Why? Wouldn't somebody with a PhD doing a study on racial anything want to a) know those things and b) tell us about them? a) Yes. b) If and only if it supports their already-formed conclusion.
joeyo 16y ago
That's a really good point. This may be telling us something more general about what the cerebral cortex is doing, too. For example, when people learn a new language that involves phonemes very different from those of their native tongue, they often go through a phase where not only do they have difficulty producing the foreign sounds but have difficulty distinguishing sounds that would seem very different to a native speaker. For example, R and L are perceived as very similar to a native japanese speaker and the nasal vowels of french and portuguese are notoriously difficult for english speakers register. It could be that Wernicke's area (were language is supposedly processed) is really just specialized for processing complex sounds that we are very familiar with. So you'd expect a bird-watcher specialization effect from ... opera goers? safe crackers? sonar operators?

by kateray 16y ago

Towle_ 16y ago

I'd like to see the study done with people who are living in a country where their race is a tiny minority. You mean like people of East Asian descent in Finland? ;) I joke, but I'm also making a point. That's valuable if that's what they did, but we don't actually know if that's what they did; we don't know where their subjects grew up, not just their nationality but more importantly their immediate environment. We have no idea. The researchers make no attempt to detail those factors. Why? Wouldn't somebody with a PhD doing a study on racial anything want to a) know those things and b) tell us about them? a) Yes. b) If and only if it supports their already-formed conclusion.

joeyo 16y ago

That's a really good point. This may be telling us something more general about what the cerebral cortex is doing, too. For example, when people learn a new language that involves phonemes very different from those of their native tongue, they often go through a phase where not only do they have difficulty producing the foreign sounds but have difficulty distinguishing sounds that would seem very different to a native speaker. For example, R and L are perceived as very similar to a native japanese speaker and the nasal vowels of french and portuguese are notoriously difficult for english speakers register. It could be that Wernicke's area (were language is supposedly processed) is really just specialized for processing complex sounds that we are very familiar with. So you'd expect a bird-watcher specialization effect from ... opera goers? safe crackers? sonar operators?