Abstract
Does color influence object recognition? In the present study, the degree to which an object was associated with a specific color was referred to ascolor diagnosticity. Using a feature listing and typicality measure, objects were identified as either high in color diagnosticity or low in color diagnosticity. According to the color diagnosticity hypothesis, color should more strongly influence the recognition of high color diagnostic (HCD) objects (e.g., a banana) than the recognition of low color diagnostic (LCD) objects (e.g., a lamp). This prediction was supported by results from classification, naming, and verification experiments, in which subjects were faster to identify color versions of HCD objects than they were to identify achromatic versions and incongruent color versions. In contrast, subjects were no faster to identify color versions of LCD objects than they were to identify achromatic and incongruent color versions. Moreover, when shape information was degraded but color information preserved, subjects were less impaired in their recognition of degraded HCD objects than of degraded LCD objects, relative to their nondegraded versions. Collectively, these results suggest that color plays a role in the recognition of HCD objects.
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This research was supported by NIH Grant R15 HD30433, a Keck Foundation Faculty Research Award, and a COSEN summer research grant. We thank Jen Sable and Michael Giles for their assistance in conducting this research and Marjorie Henderson for her help in preparing this manuscript. We are grateful to Cleve Gilmore for the use of his photometer and technical assistance. Gary Gillund and Jim Danemiller provided useful comments on an earlier version of the paper.
—Accepted by previous editor, Myron L. Braunstein
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Tanaka, J.W., Presnell, L.M. Color diagnosticity in object recognition. Perception & Psychophysics 61, 1140–1153 (1999). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207619
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207619