The effect of intersensory redundancy on recognition of own- and other-race faces in 12-month-old infants.

Across the first year of life, infants develop specialized face processing skills based on experience. This specialization can be seen in the development of the other-race effect (ORE), where own-race faces are processed more efficiently than other-race faces. The ORE can be diminished by individual experience. However, types of experiences that lead to a diminished ORE are not clear. For example, some evidence indicates that audiovisual exposure to other-race faces may diminish the ORE. This study investigated the influence of audiovisual familiarization on own- and other-race face processing in 12-month-olds. Eighty-one infants participated online via Children Helping Science. Participants were randomly assigned to be familiarized with synchronous or asynchronous videos of actors reciting a children's story, including own- and other-race faces. Following familiarization, they completed visual paired-comparisons including the familiar face and a novel face of the same race to measure recognition. Each participant was tested for recognition of own- and other-race faces. During the visual paired-comparisons, the synchronous group displayed a novelty preference only for own-race faces. Infants in the asynchronous group showed no preferences for own- or other-race faces. Synchronous audiovisual familiarization facilitated recognition for own-race faces but did not enhance recognition of other-race faces in 12-month-olds. The absence of recognition for other-race faces in both conditions suggests that audiovisual synchrony alone may not be sufficient to reduce the ORE.