1931/01/01 by Carol Gundlach, Constance Macoubrey · 1 citation
Psychology · Neuroscience · #Color perception and design #Visual perception and processing mechanisms
paper · doi:10.2307/1414243
In a series of studies culminating in that of Taylor,' it has been shown that when visual perception alone is used, color does effect apparent weight; but that when visual-plus-kinaesthetic perception is employed the effect of color on perceived weight is varying and, in general, produces equivocal results. Few experiments have concerned themselves with the effect of color on apparent size of objects. In a recent investigation Warden and Flynn2 placed eight rectangular cartons identical in size but differing in color on a shelf in a glass case. The first serial arrangement of the colors was determined by chance, and the subsequent seven arrangements by systematically rotating the boxes from left to right. Six college students wrote opposite the name of a color their judgment of its relative size in each of the eight arrangements. The results showed that for any single arrangement of the stimuli there was an effect of color on apparent size, but when all arrangements were considered together the average ranks for the 8 colors were all very close to each other (the range was from 4.2 to 4.9). The authors concluded that the color-size illusion depended in their experiment upon the specific serial arrangement of the boxes rather than upon the quality of the color or the contrast effect of the immediate context.