The Rainbow Project
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Origin and Impact of Colour Categories in Thought and Language: sub project 1 Mapping Pre-linguistic colour categories\n
IRAS ID
112278
Contact name
Anna Franklin
Contact email
Research summary
Humans can discriminate between millions of colours, but language refers to colour using discrete categories (e.g. red, green, blue). These discrete categories are also present in thought processes such as memory. There has been considerable multidisciplinary research into the origin of colour categories and how colour categories in thought and language relate. However, major theoretical challenges remain. One of these challenges is in finding out how we develop our colour categories, and whether this is influenced by language, culture etc., or if some colour categories are innate. To examine this, The Rainbow Project will investigate how infants categorise colour.\n\nThe general experimental method involves showing infants (4-6 months old) coloured squares and measuring their looking time. We will do this using a novelty preference method, which is well established in infant science. This involves participants being shown a colour until they are familiarised with it, and then shown the same colour, paired with a new colour. Past research has shown that infants look longer at new stimuli, so the infants will look longer at the new colour if they perceive it as from a different group/category to the colour that they have been shown previously (Franklin and Davis, 2004). We will be able to draw up a colour map, showing us which colours babies group together, and where they draw boundaries between colours. We will test different groups of infants using different colour pairs, systematically sampling the spectrum of colour. This will provide us with a map of infants’ colour categories. We will use this map to further understand the mechanisms that allow infants to categorise. \n
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/WM/0142
Date of REC Opinion
15 Apr 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion