In this study, we examined developmental changes in infants' processing of own-versus other-race faces. Caucasian American 8-month-olds (Experiment 1) and 4month-olds (Experiment 2) were tested in a habituation-switch procedure designed to assess holistic (attending to the relationship between internal and external features of the face) versus featural (attending to individual features of the face) processing of faces. Eight-month-olds demonstrated holistic processing of upright own-race (Caucasian) faces, but featural processing of upright other-race (African) faces. Inverted faces were processed featurally, regardless of ethnicity. Four-month-olds, however, demonstrated holistic processing of both Caucasian and African upright faces. These results demonstrate that infants' processing of own-versus other-race faces becomes specialized between 4 and 8 months.Correspondence should be addressed to PROCESSING OF OWN-VERSUS OTHER-RACE FACESOnly recently have processing differences in own-versus other-race faces been directly tested. Many of these studies compare whether adults attend to the individual features of the faces, known as featural processing, versus the configuration of the features, known as configural processing, which is considered to be the more advanced form of face processing. What is meant by configural processing, however, varies across studies. According to Maurer, LeGrand, and Mondloch (20021, there are several different kinds of configural processing, including (a) sensitivity to first-order relations (i.e., the configuration of two eyes above a nose, which are SPECIALIZED PROCESSING OF OWN-RACE FACES 265 above a mouth), (b) holistic processing (i.e., gluing together the features of a face into a gestalt), and (c) sensitivity to second-order relations tie., perceiving the distances among facial features). Recent studies have now shown that both holistic second-order relational processing (Rhodes, Hayward, & Winkler, 2006) are affected when adults view other-race faces.Although adults show processing differences for own-versus other-race faces, little is known about how or when this specialized processing might emerge prior to adulthood. Most studies investigating the ORE in infants have focused on preferences or recognition, but not processing. For example, Kelly et al. (2005) found that infants as young as 3 months prefer to look at own-versus other-race faces, whereas newborns do not show this preference. Similarly, Bar-Haim, Ziv, Lamy, and Hodes (2006) found an own-race face bias when they tested Israeli Caucasian and Ethiopian African 3-month-olds on their preferences for Caucasian versus African faces. Kelly, Liu, et al. (2007) recently demonstrated a similar bias in Chinese 3-month-olds.In terms of recognition, Sangrigoli and de Schonen (2004b) demonstrated that, when shown faces wearing a shower cap, infants at 3 months of age are better at recognizing own-race faces than other-race faces under certain test conditions. Specifically, in a visual paired-comparison task, when familiarized wi...

This study examined maternal beliefs about the functions of memory sharing and the relations between these beliefs and mother-child reminiscing behaviors in a cross-cultural context. Sixty-three European American and 47 Chinese mothers completed an open-ended questionnaire concerning their beliefs about the functions of parent-child memory sharing. They also engaged in a joint-reminiscing task with their child. European American mothers were more likely than Chinese mothers to report social (conversational and relationship maintenance) and teaching=problem solving functions. In addition, conversational functions were associated with increased maternal elaborativeness and evaluations during reminiscing, independent of culture. Results are discussed in light of the functional and cultural contexts of early autobiographical memory development.

The present study examines how the quality of children's narratives relates to the accuracy of those narratives. Sixty-one 3-to 5-year-olds played a novel game with a researcher in their schools. Children were questioned in an interview that included an open-ended free recall prompt followed by a series of directed questions. Children's narratives were coded for volume, complexity and cohesion as well as for accuracy. Correlational results showed that overall, narrative skills enable the reporting of more information, while decreasing the proportion of information that was accurate. These results appeared to be driven by a quantity-accuracy trade-off; in an ensuing regression analysis with all narrative variables entered into the model, volume was associated with decreases in accuracy while narrative cohesion was associated with increases in accuracy. We discuss the results in terms of their relationship to the development of autobiographical memory as well as implications for forensic contexts.

In the present study, we examined the role of contextual factors in beliefs about remembering personal experiences. Specifically, we examined why individuals think that they remember experiences in everyday life and whether the reasons for remembering varied as a function of recall context, memory theme, and culture. In Experiment 1, we examined young adults' reported memories in two hypothetical contexts. In Experiment 2, memories were reported in response to cue words in European American and Chinese young adults. The results indicated that social sharing contexts appeared to favor social functions, whereas private reminiscence contexts tended to favor nonfunctional reasons for remembering and, to a lesser extent, directive functions. The European Americans reported more functional reasons for remembering, whereas the Chinese were more likely to report external cues as a reason for remembering. Finally, self functions were rarely reported. The results are interpreted in light of theories of memory functions and the role of contextual factors on remembering.

The authors examined the relation between children's narrative ability, which has been identified as an important contributor to memory development, and suggestibility. Across 2 studies, a total of 112 preschool-aged children witnessed a staged event and were subsequently questioned suggestively. Results from Study 1 indicated that children's ability to provide a high-quality narrative of the event was related to resistance to suggestive questions, and narrative ability appeared to supersede age as a predictor of such resistance. In Study 2, children's general language and narrative abilities were measured in addition to their ability to produce a high-quality narrative about the target event. These results replicated Study 1's findings that children's ability to produce a high-quality narrative of a previously experienced event predicted resistance to suggestion. However, the quality of children's autobiographical memory narratives predicted shifting from denial to assent. Findings are considered in light of narrative's role in memory development and underlying mechanisms that may explain children's suggestibility.