Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Anzures, Gizelle

Abstract

Racial bias remains a prevalent issue in society. Clues to the cognitive basis for such biases have been found in EEG studies of the ‘Other Race Effect’ (ORE) in relation to the P100 and N170 event related potentials (ERPs). Previous research in this area has focused on adults, and only one such study has looked at implicit racial biases (He et al., 2009), while only a few have looked at experience with own- and other-race persons (Herzmann et al., 2011; Stahl et al., 2008; Walker et al., 2008). The present study is the first to examine how race might modulate ERP responses in children, and the first to relate these responses with both implicit racial biases and race contact experience. We examined EEG responses in 5- to 10-year-old children and adults, and whether such responses were associated with implicit racial biases and own- and other-race experience. Results showed that both children and adults displayed larger P100 and N170 responses to other-race faces, greater implicit racial biases related to larger N170 responses to other- than own-race faces, and greater other-race experience related to larger P100 responses to other- than own-race faces. In terms of age differences, we found that compared with adults, children displayed larger and more delayed P100 and N170 responses, and that in children but not in adults, greater experience with own- and other-races were associated with more delayed N170 responses to other- than own-race faces. These findings suggest that age, experience with own- and other-race persons, and implicit racial biases all influence early ERP responses to own- and other-race individuals.

Extent

70 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00013371

Format

pdf

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