The role of colour in categorial judgements

Two experiments are reported that extend the findings of Ostergaard and Davidoff (1985) on the role of colour in object processing. Two types of categorial judgements were investigated from pictorial stimuli: size judgement and living/non-living classifications. The effect of real size on size judgements (Paivio, 1975) was replicated. It was found that colour did not affect either of the categorial judgements, but the facilitation occurring in object naming tasks was confirmed. It is argued that semantic judgements can precede name retrieval, that physical colour input does not enter the semantic system, and that the representation of object colour information in the semantic system may be largely verbal.