Faces can be categorized along various dimensions including gender or race, an ability developing in infancy. Infant categorization studies have focused on facial attributes in isolation, but the interaction between these attributes remains poorly understood. Experiment 1 examined gender categorization of other-race faces in 9- and 12-month-old White infants. Nine- and 12-month-olds were familiarized with Asian male or female faces, and tested with a novel exemplar from the familiarized category paired with a novel exemplar from a novel category. Both age groups showed novel category preferences for novel Asian female faces after familiarization with Asian male faces, but showed no novel category preference for novel Asian male faces after familiarization with Asian female faces. This categorization asymmetry was not due to a spontaneous preference hindering novel category reaction (Experiment 2), and both age groups displayed difficulty discriminating among male, but not female, other-race faces (Experiment 3). These results indicate that category formation for male other-race faces is mediated by categorical perception. Overall, the findings suggest that even by 12 months of age, infants are not fully able to form gender category representations of other-race faces, responding categorically to male, but not female, other-race faces.

中文翻译：

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9 至 12 个月大婴儿对男性和女性其他种族类别的不对称反应

面孔可以根据不同的维度进行分类，包括性别或种族，这是一种在婴儿期发展起来的能力。婴儿分类研究孤立地关注面部属性，但对这些属性之间的相互作用仍然知之甚少。实验 1 检查了 9 个月和 12 个月大的白人婴儿对其他种族面孔的性别分类。9 个月和 12 个月大的婴儿熟悉亚洲男性或女性面孔，并用熟悉类别的新样本与新类别的新样本配对进行测试。两个年龄组在熟悉亚洲男性面孔后都表现出对新亚洲女性面孔的新类别偏好，但在熟悉亚洲女性面孔后对新亚洲男性面孔没有表现出新类别偏好。这种分类不对称并不是由于自发的偏好阻碍了新的类别反应（实验 2），并且两个年龄组都表现出难以区分男性而非女性的其他种族面孔（实验 3）。这些结果表明，男性其他种族面孔的类别形成是由类别感知介导的。总体而言，研究结果表明，即使在 12 个月大时，婴儿也无法完全形成其他种族面孔的性别类别表征，对男性而不是女性的其他种族面孔做出明确反应。