Coda

This Special Issue illustrates a remarkable variety of work which not only consolidates our knowledge of the cross-race effect but also exemplifies crossgroup recognition disadvantages of other kinds. These include recognition of faces from other age groups (Wiese, Komes, & Schweinberger, this issue 2013), other species (Scott & Fava, this issue 2013), and even the opposite sex (Herlitz & Loven, this issue 2013). One strong contribution to such effects lies in experience and expertise, building from the very earliest days of life. The emerging developmental story is well reviewed by Anzures et al. (this issue 2013). Born with a capacity to recognize any faces, babies quite quickly become tuned to be better at recognizing the types of faces they encounter within their own communities compared with those of different types. This early tuning then allows expertise to become consolidated across the lifespan, but in a way that retains sensitivity to those faces commonly encountered. This “expertise” with faces is peculiar, however. We rapidly become adept at recognizing faces from our own social groups during infancy, yet we retain limited ability to cope with even modest changes in “pictorial” features of viewpoint, lighting, and expression when trying to match unfamiliar faces as “expert” adults. This paradox provides clues to the kind of face-learning system that underlies our “expertise”, as described by O’Toole et al. (this issue 2013).