Color Distortion: Perception

“Color describtion: Perception”

Theoretical Framework:
Prototype theory
Invented Words (Berko 1958).
Color Semantics
Link between perception & language.
Cultural differences in color terms.

Objectives:
Observe at what age children start to distinguish between similar colors.
Observe with which objects do they relate colors the most.
Observe if cultural aspects change color description.

Materials:
List of colors from Wikipedia.
11 Subjects for the interviews (4 children, 2 adolescents and 5 adults).

Questions:
Will the kids use more relations with things in their enviorment to describe colors?
What does children use more from their enviorment? (food, toys, etc.)
Does color description varies acording to age?
Do kids
Children from 7 years and above can differenciate between similar colors and describe them more (By using the adjectives “Light” and “Dark”).
Children from 9 years start relating colors not only with adjectives like “Light” or “Dark” for different shades, but also start relating them with objects in their surroundings but not nessesarily at that moment. Also create compuond words by joining the 2 “visible” colors.
Limón, Quemado, Vino, Pasto, Árbol, Lila.
Verde-Azul or Azul-Verde
Adolescents and Adults use the same kind of vocabulary and adjectives to describe things.
They also relate the colors with sometimes less common objects, but they tend to be more specific about them:
Less common: Perry (cartoon), Italian (Coffee shop), Barbie (Toys).
More common: Pasto, Tulipan, Árbol, Pino, Hoja, Lavanda, Lila (Plants), Salmón, Canario (Animals), Lima, Limón (Fruits), Cielo (Nature), Mostaza, Vino (Food).
Abstract adjectives: Claro, Fuerte, Opaco, Fosforescente, Prendido, Pastel, Sucio,
FRANKLIN: There 's lots of different processes going on when you discriminate color. And what we 're interested in is your categorical response to color, and this is where you 're better at telling the difference between two colors, if they belong to a different color category such as a blue and a green, than if they belong to the same color category such as two greens. In adults, this effect, where you 're most sensitive to different category color differences, that is done by the left side of your brain. Now, the left side of your brain is where most language functions are. And one argument is that, because language is on that side of the brain predominantly, that it reinforces the distinction between the two colors.
SEABROOK: OK. So what 's happening in a toddler 's brain? The child who hasn 't learned the name of colors yet.
Dr. FRANKLIN: OK. So, we 've tested toddlers who are learning the words for color, and what we found was that for the toddlers who don 't know the words, then their category effect was stronger in the right side of the brain. And once they learn the words for blue and green, it switches over to the left side of the brain. So in a nut shell, learning the word for a color changes the way in which your brain processes that color. I just find that so fascinating because it means, right, that learning a language changes your brain and not the other way around.
This findings suggests that learning language or learning color terms could change the way