Judgment is not color blind: The impact of automatic color preference on product and advertising preferences

This research examines the colors white and black and highlights the importance of automatic preference for the color white over black in product choice and advertising contexts. Across three studies, we incorporate multiple Implicit Association Tests to assess automatic preferences for colors, products, races, and advertisements. In Study 1, we demonstrate an automatic color preference for white over black, show that this preference holds for Caucasian-Americans and African-Americans, and find that automatic color preference predicts automatic product preference of white over black-colored products. Study 2 extends these findings by showing that actual behavioral product choice is best predicted by a combination of automatic and explicit color preferences. In the advertising domain, Study 3 demonstrates how automatic color preference influences advertising responses and how it explains the lack of in-group preference by African-Americans in previous implicit studies of racial preference. Collectively, our research draws attention to the need to disentangle white and black as designation of colors versus racial groups, and offers significant and novel contributions to the work on color and race in consumer psychology.     

Sex-Dimorphic Color Preference in Children with Gender Identity Disorder: A Comparison to Clinical and Community Controls

The present study was designed to assess sex-dimorphic color preferences in children with gender identity disorder (47 boys, 18 girls), clinical controls (65 boys, 35 girls), and community controls (65 boys, 35 girls). The mean age of the children was 7.63 years (range?=?3–12 years). Children were shown a hexagon-shaped display of 144 colors extracted from PowerPoint?. Each child was asked to choose his or her three favorite colors (Trials 1–3) by pointing to them, naming them, and then to provide a justification for each choice. From the entire array, children labeled a total of 11 different colors: black, blue, brown, gray, green, orange, pink, purple, red, white, and yellow. For three of the colors (blue, pink/purple, and red), there was evidence for normative sex differences in color preference, and, for the colors blue and pink/purple, the gender-referred children showed inverted patterns of color preference. For the color blue, luminance values showed that the gender-referred boys and control girls preferred lighter shades, whereas the gender-referred girls and control boys preferred darker shades. Qualitative analysis indicated that gender-specific justifications were uncommon, even for the sex-dimorphic colors. Gender-referred children showed inverted gender-stereotyped color preferences, which are likely related to their more general pattern of cross-gender identification. Principles of gender-differentiated development derived from gender-schema theory are used to explain the group differences in color preferences.     

Hyperspecificity in visual implicit learning: learning of spatial layout is contingent on item identity

Humans conduct visual search faster when the same display is presented for a 2nd time, showing implicit learning of repeated displays. This study examines whether learning of a spatial layout transfers to other layouts that are occupied by items of new shapes or colors. The authors show that spatial context learning is sometimes contingent on item identity. For example, when the training session included some trials with black items and other trials with white items, learning of the spatial layout became specific to the trained color--no transfer was seen when items were in a new color during testing. However, when the training session included only trials in black (or white), learning transferred to displays with a new color. Similar results held when items changed shapes after training. The authors conclude that implicit visual learning is sensitive to trial context and that spatial context learning can be identity contingent.     

文化差异影响彝、白、纳西和汉族大学生对黑白的认知

以彝族、白族、纳西族和汉族的大学生为被试,采用颜色相似性判断和颜色再认任务,考察了彝族、白族、纳西族和汉族的大学生对于黑色和白色的认知,意在探究不同民族的黑、白文化是否影响人们对黑、白颜色的认知。结果发现：⑴彝族、白族、纳西族和汉族的黑、白文化影响四个民族的大学生对于黑色和白色的认知;⑵语言和文化对于颜色认知的影响包括间接效应和直接效应。整个研究表明,语言和文化对颜色认知有重要影响     

吊车工人深度视觉阈值的测定

本研究对１０９名吊车工人进行了红橙黄绿蓝紫黑白等八种颜色的深度知觉阈限的测定．结果发现：在白色背景条件下,绿蓝两色为最佳深度色,最易辨别深度差异;黑紫红三色为二级深度色;橙黄两色为三级深度色;白色为四级深度色．易于深度辨别的颜色．,平均阈值小,分布较集中;不易深度辨别的颜色,平均阈值大,分布较分散．建议吊车设计部门,在吊钩臂部位的黄色背景上,涂上黑色条子．使吊车的吊钧本身具有颜色对比,少受作业环境的影响。     

Color charts, esthetics, and subjective randomness

Color charts, or grids of evenly spaced multicolored dots or squares, appear in the work of modern artists and designers. Often the artist/designer distributes the many colors in a way that could be described as "random," that is, without an obvious pattern. We conduct a statistical analysis of 125 "random-looking" art and design color charts and show that they differ significantly from truly random color charts in the average distance between adjacent colors. We argue that this attribute generalizes results in subjective randomness in a black/white setting and gives further evidence supporting a connection between subjective randomness and what is esthetically pleasing.     

Achromatic color categories

Sternheim and Boynton’s (1966) continuous judgmental color-naming technique was used to assess the elemental nature of achromatic colors. Results from three subjects indicate that the names “black” and “white” are necessary and sufficient to describe achromatic test lights associated with the name “gray.” On the basis of the criteria that establishes a color as elemental, black and white were confirmed as elemental, whereas gray was not. These findings support the assumption of various opponent processing models that there are only two elemental achromatic sensations. In addition, the results support Hering’s (1920) view that black and white differ from the paired-chromatic opponent colors in that they are not mutually exclusive.     

Social preference of female gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) as influenced by coat color of males

Female gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) of three distinct coat colors (agouti, black, and sandy or pink-eyed dilution) were tested in a Y-maze whose arms led to compartments containing unfamiliar male gerbils of varying coat colors. The stimulus animals were separated from the females by a Plexiglas door. The trials lasted for 2 min and each female was exposed to the following four combinations: two males of the same coloring as the female; one male of the same color and another of a different color from the female; both males of different color from the female. The number of crossings to the left and right arms was relayed by photocells to an IBM PC computer. The results indicate that agouti females preferred visiting the arm occupied by agouti males while those of the other coat colors showed no preference for the "wild-type" males. Instead, sandy and black female gerbils preferred to be in proximity with those of non-wild types.     

The colors of the alphabet: naturally-biased associations between shape and color

Many letters of the alphabet are consistently mapped to specific colors in English-speaking adults, both in the general population and in individuals with grapheme-color synaesthesia who perceive letters in color. Here, across six experiments, we tested the ubiquity of the color/letter associations with typically developing toddlers, literate children, and adults. We found that pre-literate children associate O with white and X with black and discovered that they also associate I and ameboid nonsense shapes with white; Z and jagged nonsense shapes with black; and C with yellow; but do not make a number of other associations (B blue; Y yellow; A red; G green) seen in literate children and adults. The toddlers' mappings were based on the shape and not the sound of the letter. The results suggest that sensory cortical organization initially binds specific colors to some specific shapes and that learning to read can induce additional associations, likely through the influence of higher order networks as letters take on meaning.     

3—6岁不同民族儿童颜色命名发展的比较

该文报告了我国大陆地区的汉族、蒙族、维族、壮族、白族及哈尼族3-6岁儿童的颜色命名发展的水平与差异。采用8种常见色片,即红、橙、黄、绿、蓝、紫及黑、白作为本实验用色样。结果表明：6个不同民族儿童的颜色正确命名率均随年龄增长而提高,不同民族儿童的颜色正确命名率存在一定差异。从总平均结果值来看,汉族儿童正确命名率为75．7％,蒙族为74．9％,哈尼族为59．8％,壮族为57．8％,白族为56．3％,维族为42．9％。对不同颜色的正确命名难易程度是不同的,但总的发展趋势是一致的,正确命名颜色的先后发展次序是：先是黑色、红色、白色,然后是黄色和绿色,再后是蓝色,最后是紫色与橙色。对儿童给予早期颜色命名教育可以明显提高和促进其颜色命名能力的发展。     

A vision research apparatus for broad luminance range displays.

Lightness, the perceived gray shade of a surface, and the perception of self-luminous surfaces--that is, surfaces that appear to glow--have most often been studied with paper displays and computer-generated stimuli presented on CRT monitors. Although both methods are often effective, experiments that require a wide range of luminance values in the same display are often difficult to conduct with paper and computer displays alone. Also, color mode appearance is often an issue when surface color perception is the topic of research; CRT monitors are essentially light sources themselves and often appear in the luminous mode of color appearance. Here, we describe an apparatus in which the target is an undetected aperture whose luminance is adjustable. Whereas a typical CRT monitor offers a luminance range of about 100:1, much broader luminance ranges are possible with the described apparatus. Unlike a CRT monitor, the stimulus background will always appear in the surface mode of color perception, and the target(s) can appear as either surface colors or luminous colors. Apparatus modifications are possible, including the addition of a stereoscope or an embedded CRT for creating an adjustable region that is computer controlled.     

Influence of Value on Spatial Balance of Color Pairs

The spatial balance of the component colors is an important element of color harmony in a design. Munsell (1905) suggested that the area of each color in a composition be inversely proportional to the product of the color's chroma and value. Moon and Spencer (1944) proposed that both chroma and value contribute to spatial balance, but the dominant factor is the contrast of a color with the background or with the adaptation point of the eye. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive power of these two rules for hues of equal chroma, varying in value. The stimuli were presented on three different achromatic backgrounds, and both complementary and adjacent pairs of hues were used. When two colors differed in value, subjects tended to avoid equal areas. With black or white backgrounds subjects seemed to prefer larger areas of the color whose value was nearer that of the background, but with a gray background, their choice was either a narrow band of light or of dark color. These findings fail to support either the Munsell or the Moon and Spencer models.     

Test of a convergence model for color transparency perception

Models of color transparency suggest that a region in which colors of surfaces converge in color space will appear transparent. The convergence is described by a transparency parameter alpha and a target of convergence. To test such models psychophysically, observers were presented a display with four colored areas. The colors of three of the areas were chosen in advance by the experimenter. The task of the observer was to choose the color of the fourth area to make a central region appear transparent. Settings for the fourth color were collected for a total of twenty-four color combinations chosen from three planes in color space. Observers' settings agreed well with the model, which predicts that choices for the fourth color lie along a line segment in color space that is parameterized by alpha. The results suggest further that color discriminability and color opponency also influence transparency judgment.     

Illumination, background luminance, and perceptual learning in perception of achromatic colors

Plateau's experiment, in which the bisection method was introduced, is recognized as the first psychophysical experiment ever done. That experiment was replicated and extended using modem imaging devices. First, participants with professional training in visual arts painted grayscales with no control on illumination. Then, the trained participants and the nontrained participants generated grayscales using a personal computer in three different conditions: a white background of a linearized monitor, a black background of that monitor, and a white background but without linearizing the monitor. Analyses showed that with artificial illumination, scales with steps more evenly spread were produced than with natural illumination. Humans do not seem to have a natural ability to use the bisection method properly. Experts seem to be able to judge the reflectance of distal stimuli, and perceptual learning played an important role in the perception of achromatic colors as found in prior literature.     

Variations of the Fechner wheel

The Fechner wheel is a disk that is printed in black and white. When the Fechner wheel spins at an appropriate speed, semicircles on the wheel appear to be in color. Modern computer technology makes it possible to rapidly and repeatedly present a series of images on a monitor screen. A series of still images of a Fechner wheel can be substituted for a Fechner wheel on a motor shaft. Straight lines and lines of text can be substituted for semicircles to obtain a color effect. A color effect can be obtained in small areas of black-and-white pictures.     

A vision research apparatus for broad luminance range displays

Lightness, the perceived gray shade of a surface, and the perception of self-luminous surfaces—that is, surfaces that appear to glow—have most often been studied with paper displays and computer-generated stimuli presented on CRT monitors. Although both methods are often effective, experiments that require a wide range of luminance values in the same display are often difficult to conduct with paper and computer displays alone. Also, color mode appearance is often an issue when surface color perception is the topic of research; CRT monitors are essentially light sources themselves and often appear in the luminous mode of color appearance. Here, we describe an apparatus in which the target is an undetected aperture whose luminance is adjustable. Whereas a typical CRT monitor offers a luminance range of about 100:1, much broader luminance ranges are possible with the described apparatus. Unlike a CRT monitor, the stimulus background will always appear in the surface mode of color perception, and the target(s) can appear as either surface colors or luminous colors. Apparatus modifications are possible, including the addition of a stereoscope or an embedded CRT for creating an adjustable region that is computer controlled.     

3～6岁儿童对11种基本颜色命名和分类研究

对3~6岁儿童11种基本颜色的命名和分类进行了研究。结果表明:⑴汉语儿童对11种基本颜色的正确命名率随年龄增长而提高,顺序是白、黑、红、黄、绿、蓝、粉红、紫、橙、灰和棕。(2)汉语儿童对基本颜色分类能力随年龄增长而提高。3~4岁儿童对基本颜色没有明确的分类标准。5岁儿童有了一定标准,并出现按“彩色/非彩色”和“冷色/暖色”分类的倾向。6岁儿童颜色分类标准更明确,开始由主观标准向客观标准转变。     

Effectiveness of color in picture recognition memory

Investigations were conducted into the effectiveness of color in picture recognition memory. In the study phase, half of the pictures were presented in color and the other half in black and white. In the test phase, half were presented in the same color mode as the study pictures and the other half in the other mode. In immediate and 1-week-delayed tests, the recognition performance was highest when color pictures were used in both the study and test phases. The recall for the color mode of the study pictures, however, was not as good, even with the color pictures. This suggests that the effectiveness of color in picture recognition is not necessarily due to the memory for colors in the pictures themselves, but is probably due to the distinctiveness of features highlighted by the colors. We also found that in the recall performance for the color mode it was more difficult to detect the deletion of colors than to detect their addition.     

3—6岁白、哈尼族与汉族儿童的颜色命名能力的发展

探讨了云南地区白族与哈尼族３—６岁儿童的颜色命名能力发展,并与北京地区汉族同龄儿童作了比较。实验结果表明,不同民族的儿童的颜色命名能力都伴随年龄增长而逐步提高;但汉族儿童的颜色命名能力发展略高于哈尼族与白族同龄儿童。总的来看,儿童对不同颜色正确命名能力的发展有着共同的规律性,即黑、白、红三色较易正确命名,其次是黄、绿、蓝三色较难正确命名,命名正确率最低的颜色是橙与紫。     

Color appearance of surfaces viewed through fog

How do the colors of surfaces seen through fog depend on the chromatic properties of the fog? Prior work (e.g. Chen and D'Zmura, 1998 Perception 27 595-608) shows that the colors of surfaces seen through a transparent filter can be described by a convergence model. The convergence model takes into account color shift and change in contrast. Whether the convergence model can also be applied to fog was tested experimentally with an asymmetric matching task. In computer graphic simulation, observers adjusted the color of a surface seen through fog in order to match the color of a surface seen in the absence of fog. The convergence model fits the data well. The results suggest that the color constancy revealed in this task with fog is described best by a model that takes into account both shift in color and change in contrast.