Fertile green: green facilitates creative performance

The present research sought to extend the nascent literature on color and psychological functioning by examining whether perception of the color green facilitates creativity. In four experiments, we demonstrated that a brief glimpse of green prior to a creativity task enhances creative performance. This green effect was observed using both achromatic (white, gray) and chromatic (red, blue) contrast colors that were carefully matched on nonhue properties, and using both picture-based and word-based assessments of creativity. Participants were not aware of the purpose of the experiment, and null effects were obtained on participants' self-reported mood and positive activation. These findings indicate that green has implications beyond aesthetics and suggest the need for sustained empirical work on the functional meaning of green.     

The influence of red on impression formation in a job application context

Recent research has shown that the color red can influence psychological functioning. In the present research we tested the hypothesis that red influences impression formation related to another person’s abilities. We conducted three experiments examining the influence of red on the evaluation of male target persons. In Experiment 1, participants viewing red, relative to green, on the shirt of a person presented on a photograph perceived him to be less intelligent. This effect was strongest in a job application context compared to other contexts. In Experiment 2, focusing solely on the job application context, participants viewing red, relative to blue, on an applicants’ tie perceived him to have less earning and leadership potential. In Experiment 3, participants viewing red, relative to green, on a job applicants’ tie rated him as less likely to be hired, and perceptions of ability and leadership potential mediated this effect. Both the conceptual and applied implications of these findings are discussed.     

Some characteristics of psychophysical data obtained with a group version of the up-and-down method

Effects of backgroun reflectance on the shapes of scales of lightness were investigated in two experiments. In Experiment I, 25 Ss compared similaritiesofpairs ofgray chips that were viewed against black, gray. or white backgrounds. In Experiment 2, 33 Ss positioned a series of gray chips, viewed against a white, gray. or black background, so that the distances between successive chips represented the perceived differences in lightness between them. The results of both studies indicated that scale shape was influenced by background. The nature of the effect was that interstimulus differences in the region of a background were enhanced relative to interstimulus differences far from a background.     

红色的心理功能及作用机制

红色作为独特的知觉刺激,它不仅是视觉符号更是社会互动符号。红色心理功能的探索在近年来取得了巨大的进展。本文具体阐述了红色在成就、体育竞技以及两性关系情境中的心理功能,总结了红色心理功能的相关理论和解释。作者在回顾西方已有研究的同时,也总结了自身在红色心理功能中国化研究方面的探索。最后,本文提出在未来红色心理功能研究中,研究者应该关注对红色心理功能机制的探索和文化特异性的分析。     

The effect of red on male perceptions of female attractiveness: Moderation by baseline attractiveness of female faces

Past research has demonstrated the importance of color in a variety of social contexts, including human mating. For example, red increases heterosexual men's feelings of attraction toward women. In the current work, this basic red‐attraction link is qualified by the initial attractiveness of female faces. In two experiments, red enhanced men's ratings of female attractiveness, but only for faces pre‐rated as attractive; red had no influence on perceptions of initially unattractive faces. Additionally, Experiment 1 manipulated how long participants viewed attractive and unattractive faces as an exploratory test of when color and face features are integrated. The findings show that initial female attractiveness moderates the influence of red on judgments of attractiveness even when the faces are viewed for extremely short exposures. The present findings identify an important boundary condition of the red‐attractiveness effect and provide an initial indication of where in the processing stream color impacts social judgments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mediation of the negative effect of red on intellectual performance

This research examines the hypothesis that an attentional process grounded in avoidance motivation-local relative to global processing-mediates the negative effect of red on intellectual performance. This hypothesis was tested in a series of experiments using two approaches to documenting mediation. Experiment 1 established that the perception of red undermines IQ test performance. Experiments 2a and 2b documented mediation via the experimental causal chain approach, and Experiment 3 documented mediation via the measurement of mediation approach. This represents the first demonstration of a mediational process in the domain of color psychology. A call is made to broaden priming research to include color stimuli.     

The Impact of Stimuli Color in Lexical Decision and Semantic Word Categorization Tasks

In two experiments, we examined the impact of color on cognitive performance by asking participants to categorize stimuli presented in three different colors: red, green, and gray (baseline). Participants were either asked to categorize the meaning of words as related to the concepts of “go” or “stop” (Experiment 1) or to indicate if a neutral verbal stimulus was a word or not (lexical decision task, Experiment 2). Overall, we observed performance facilitation in response to go stimuli presented in green (vs. red or gray) and performance inhibition in response to go stimuli presented in red. The opposite pattern was observed for stop‐related stimuli. Importantly, results also indicated that color might also be used to categorize neutral stimuli. Overall, these findings provide support to the green‐go and red‐stop color associations and test the potential functional autonomy acquired by these colors and the boundary conditions to their effects on stimuli categorization.     

The chameleon effect: the perception-behavior link and social interaction.

The chameleon effect refers to nonconscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one's interaction partners, such that one's behavior passively and unintentionally changes to match that of others in one's current social environment. The authors suggest that the mechanism involved is the perception-behavior link, the recently documented finding (e.g., J. A. Bargh, M. Chen, & L. Burrows, 1996) that the mere perception of another's behavior automatically increases the likelihood of engaging in that behavior oneself. Experiment 1 showed that the motor behavior of participants unintentionally matched that of strangers with whom they worked on a task. Experiment 2 had confederates mimic the posture and movements of participants and showed that mimicry facilitates the smoothness of interactions and increases liking between interaction partners. Experiment 3 showed that dispositionally empathic individuals exhibit the chameleon effect to a greater extent than do other people.     

Newborns' discrimination of chromatic from achromatic stimuli

Two experiments assessed newborns' ability to discriminate chromatic from achromatic stimuli. In Experiment 1, newborns differentiated gray from green, from yellow, and from red: For each of these hues they preferred chromatic-and-gray checkerboards over gray squares matched in mean luminance, even though the luminance of the gray checks was varied systematically over a wide range so as to minimize nonchromatic cues. However, newborns showed no evidence of differentiating gray from blue: At some luminances they showed no preference for a blue-and-gray checkerboard over a gray square. In Experiment 2, newborns differentiated red from gray but appeared not to differentiate blue from gray: Following habituation to a series of gray squares of varying luminance, they looked longer at a red square than at a gray square of novel luminance but showed no such pattern of recovery to a blue square. The results imply that newborns have some, albeit limited, ability to discriminate chromatic from achromatic stimuli and hence, that they are at least dichromats.     

Color and psychological functioning: the effect of red on performance attainment

This research focuses on the relation between color and psychological functioning, specifically, that between red and performance attainment. Red is hypothesized to impair performance on achievement tasks, because red is associated with the danger of failure in achievement contexts and evokes avoidance motivation. Four experiments demonstrate that the brief perception of red prior to an important test (e.g., an IQ test) impairs performance, and this effect appears to take place outside of participants' conscious awareness. Two further experiments establish the link between red and avoidance motivation as indicated by behavioral (i.e., task choice) and psychophysiological (i.e., cortical activation) measures. The findings suggest that care must be taken in how red is used in achievement contexts and illustrate how color can act as a subtle environmental cue that has important influences on behavior.     

The semantic red effect: Processing the word red undermines intellectual performance

Recent research has shown that a two second glimpse of color can have an important influence on affect, cognition, and behavior. The present research examined whether perceiving color is necessary to produce an effect on psychological functioning or whether the mere act of processing a color word might be sufficient. Specifically, four experiments tested the hypothesis that processing the word red undermines intellectual performance, much like actually perceiving the color red. Supportive data were obtained with three different types of subtle manipulation, with three different types of control words, and on two different types of IQ test performance. Worry, but not mood or general arousal, was shown to mediate the semantic red effect, which appears to take place outside of individuals’ awareness. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Salient features of color space

Recent research has demonstrated that focal regions of color space are cognitively more salient than nonfocal regions. Employing a linguistic hedge task, the experiment here sought mainly to verify the cognitive primacy of loci representing Berlin and Kay’s first four chromatic categories over foci representing the remainder. The experimental results failed to support the primacy hypothesis, an outcome that gives rise to a number of theoretical implications. Additional questions in the analysis concerned the relationship between the salience of a color and its lightness (Munsell value) and saturation (Munsell chroma). While the results permit no simple interpretation for lightness, a definite trend emerged in the case of saturation.     

Chromatic induction effects in the Hermann grid illusion.

The chromatic Hermann grid illusion was investigated in sixteen subjects, with variation of the lightness contrast between the chromatic inducing squares and the background, and the saturation and hue of the inducing squares. Subjects made magnitude estimates of the sharpness and clarity of perceived dots at the intersections of the grid, and matched the appearances of the dots with Munsell chips. A chromatic induction effect was found to occur in the absence of lightness contrast, but the sharpness of the illusory dots increased with increasing lightness contrast (p less than 0.001). The saturation of the perceived dots increased with increases in the saturation of the inducing squares (p less than 0.05), and was higher for the longer wavelengths than for the shorter wavelengths (p less than 0.005). Neural units with center-surround arrangements responding differentially to light of the same color in the center and the surround, e.g. red off-centers and red on-surrounds, could account for the chromatic induction effect.     

A multi-systems theory of the structure and dynamics of motor functions

A theoretical analysis of the structure and dynamics of human motor functioning is presented from the perspective of a general theory of individuality. Within multifactor-systems theory, the structural units of the six systems of integrative personality (i.e., sensory, motor, cognitive, affect, style, and value) are hierarchical factor structures. Integrative functioning, both within and among systems, is described via the principles of general systems and information-processing theory. Our theoretical synthesis of the structure and dynamics of human motor functioning involves conceptualizing the hierarchy of motor factors as: (a) the basic dimensions of individual differences in the motor domain, (b) classes of decomposable motor programs that specify the spatio-temporal organization of behavior, and (c) decomposable classes of processing components entailed by motor programs. Some of the implications for understanding the role of affect in motor functioning and some research suggestions were presented.     

Surface lightness influences perceived room height

Surprisingly little scientific research has been conducted on the effects of colour and lightness on the perception of spaciousness. Practitioners and architects typically suggest that a room's ceiling appears higher when it is painted lighter than the walls, while darker ceilings appear lower. Employing a virtual reality setting, we studied the effects of the lightness of different room surfaces on perceived height in two psychophysical experiments. Observers judged the height of rooms varying in physical height as well as in the lightness of ceiling, floor, and walls. Experiment 1 showed the expected increase of perceived height with increases in ceiling lightness. Unexpectedly, the perceived height additionally increased with wall lightness, and the effects of wall lightness and ceiling lightness were roughly additive, incompatible with a simple effect of the lightness contrast between the ceiling and the walls. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the floor lightness has no significant effect on perceived height, and that the total brightness of the room is not the critical factor influencing the perceived height. Neither can the results be explained by previously reported effects of brightness on apparent depth or perceived distance.     

注意控制定势和线索类型在注意捕获中的作用

采用前线索范式, 通过3个实验考察了注意控制定势和线索类型在注意捕获中的作用。实验1要求被试搜索颜色奇异项目标或突现目标, 涉及较弱的注意控制定势, 结果表明, 突现线索在作为匹配线索和不匹配线索时都能捕获注意, 而颜色奇异项线索只有在作为匹配线索时才能捕获注意。实验2要求被试搜索具体特征的红色或白色目标, 使被试建立较强的特征搜索定势, 结果表明, 颜色奇异项线索和突现线索在作为匹配线索时都能捕获注意, 但是在不匹配条件下, 颜色奇异项线索被抑制了, 而突现线索不能捕获注意; 实验3采取go/no-go范式, 要求被试对红色目标进行反应, 对白色目标进行抑制, 并通过设置不同的线索-目标时间间隔来进一步考察注意捕获的机制, 结果表明, 在600 ms间隔下, no-go突现线索被抑制, 而对于go颜色奇异项线索来说, 随着时间间隔的增加, 注意捕获效应减少。结果与相倚捕获假说和抑制独立捕获假说不符, 支持注意转移假说：自上而下的注意控制定势通过把注意从和目标不匹配的特征位置转移发挥作用; 颜色奇异项线索和突现线索的注意捕获机制相同, 但是突现线索相对于颜色奇异项线索来说, 在与目标不匹配的条件下, 更容易捕获注意, 更难被抑制。     

风险回避行为中的“红色图形效应”

以往研究发现,风险回避领域存在着一种经典的"图形效应"(即图形会比数字激发出个体更强的风险回避行为)。但以往研究通常只采用灰色或黑色来呈现风险信息。基于近来关于红色效应的探讨,本研究试图将颜色因素引入到图形效应中以探讨不同颜色下的图形效应特点。结果发现,相比于蓝色,红色能激发出个体更强的风险回避行为,且颜色对图形效应具有调节作用,即与蓝色相比,红色条件下出现了增强的图形效应,即"红色图形效应"。有关结果说明,红色作为一种危险警示颜色可以激发出个体更强的风险回避行为,且会诱发更大的图形效应。     

红色和蓝色对中国汉族大学生情绪的启动效应

通过3个实验探讨红色和蓝色对中国汉族大学生的情绪意义。实验1采用限制联想法考察红色和蓝色的情绪意义。实验2、实验3采用启动范式, 分别考察在知觉水平和概念水平上红色和蓝色对情绪的启动效应。结果发现：(1)知觉水平：在唤醒度和优势度上, 红色知觉引发了高唤醒、高优势情绪, 蓝色知觉引发了低唤醒、低优势情绪, 这与国外研究基本一致; 但在愉悦度上, 红色知觉既能引发高愉悦情绪, 也能引发低愉悦情绪, 而蓝色知觉只引发了高愉悦情绪, 这体现出本土化特点。(2)概念水平：在唤醒度和愉悦度上, 红色概念引发了高唤醒、高优势情绪, 蓝色概念引发了低唤醒、低优势情绪, 这与知觉水平基本一致; 但在愉悦度上, 红色概念只启动了高愉悦情绪, 而蓝色概念同时启动了高愉悦和低愉悦的情绪, 这与知觉水平不一致。本研究表明：(1)红色和蓝色对中国汉族大学生情绪引发的特点主要表现在愉悦度上; (2)颜色知觉和颜色概念对情绪的引发机制可能具有如下特点：颜色知觉对情绪的三维度具有直接的引发作用; 而颜色概念对情绪唤醒度和优势度的引发是以颜色知觉为中介, 对愉悦度的引发则是以社会文化为原因。本研究探讨了红色和蓝色对中国汉族大学生情绪的作用, 对红色和蓝色在中国社会环境中的应用具有一定的实际价值; 同时, 直接比较并剖析了颜色知觉与概念对情绪的引发特点, 对于揭示二者对情绪引发的内部机制具有一定的理论意义。     

The relation of lightness and stereoscopic depth in a simple viewing situation

The effect of stereoscopic depth on perceived lightness was studied using a simple, achromatic stimulus arrangement. In Experiment 1, depth/lightness interactions were sought between a single test field and a single induction field. In Experiment 2, depth/lightness interactions were looked for between a single test field and two induction fields. Stimuli were presented on a computer screen and viewed with a stereoscope. The subjects reported perceived lightness of the achromatic test field by rating its apparent blackness along a dimension of 0%–100%. In Experiment 1, they reported lightness judgments of the test field across 13 perceived depth levels and 8 contrast levels. In Experiment 2, they gave lightness judgments of the test field across 7 perceived depth levels and 16 contrast levels. We were particularly interested in observing the generality of Gilchrist’s coplanar ratio hypothesis. The results showed that when stereopsis and contrast levels are the available cues, depth and lightness percepts are independent, and it is retinal ratios, not coplanar ratios, that dictate lightness perception. We conclude that before the relative depth location of an object is determined, its lightness value is known through sensory-level processes.     

Learning in context: linguistic and attentional constraints on children's color term learning

Three experiments investigated whether linguistic and/or attentional constraints might account for preschoolers' difficulties when learning color terms. Task structure and demands were equated across experiments, and both speed and degree of learning were compared. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds who were matched on vocabulary score were taught new secondary color terms by corrective, semantic, or referential linguistic contrast. Corrective contrast produced more rapid and more extensive learning than did either semantic or referential contrast, supporting the hypothesis that targeted linguistic feedback facilitates learning. Experiment 2 replicated and extended the first experiment with Italian children and found cross-cultural differences in the amount learned about colors named differently in the two languages. In Experiment 3, some of the children were introduced to the new terms within a context of enhanced perceptual salience. These children learned as fast and performed as accurately as those given corrective linguistic feedback in Experiment 1.