Infants look longer at colours that adults like when colours are highly saturated

Exploring the association between personality traits and colour saturation preference using machine learning

Both personality traits and colour saturation are associated with emotion; however, how colour saturation preference interacts with different traits and whether this interaction is modulated by object-colour relations remains unclear. In this study, we examined the impact of object-colour relations on colour saturation preference and the relative importance of each personality trait in predicting this preference. Sixty Chinese college students were recruited and registered based on their preferred colour saturation of an object displayed on a computer screen. Random Forest regression analysis in machine learning was applied to ascertain the relative importance of different traits. The results showed that the preferred colour saturation for different objects ranged from high to low: unreal, natural, and artificial. Random Forest regression analysis indicated that personality traits can accurately predict saturation preferences. Specifically, Openness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism are more crucial than Agreeableness and Conscientiousness for objects, while Agreeableness and Openness are the key traits across the three colour hues. Colour saturation preference is also influenced by object-colour association, with each personality trait playing a unique role in this preference due to its relationship with emotions.

The edge orientation entropy of natural scenes is associated with infant visual preferences and adult aesthetic judgements

Statistical regularities of oriented edges in natural scenes, 'edge co-occurrence statistics', are associated with adults' aesthetic responses, with greater preference for some images when the degree of randomness in the orientation of edges (Edge Orientation Entropy, EOE) across an image is relatively high. Here, we investigate whether this spatial image statistic is also associated with infants' visual preferences. We measure infant looking time for images of building façades previously used to identify the relationship between EOE and adult aesthetic judgements. Twenty-six 4-9-month-old infants and 29 adults looked freely at pairs of the images. Infants and adults both looked longest at images where all edge orientations are about equally likely to occur (high 1st-order EOE), and at images with low correlation of edge orientations across the image (high 2nd-order EOE). Infant looking time and adult pleasantness judgements were also strongly related: infants looked longer at the building façades that adults liked. Our results suggest that even as young as 4-months, infants' spatial vision is sensitive to edge co-occurrence statistics that are typical of natural scenes and faces, where edges are more evenly distributed across orientations. We discuss the implications for understanding the sensory component of adult aesthetic judgements, as well as the role of natural scene statistics in infant perception.

Visual stimulus structure, visual system neural activity, and visual behavior in young human infants

In visual perception and information processing, a cascade of associations is hypothesized to flow from the structure of the visual stimulus to neural activity along the retinogeniculostriate visual system to behavior and action. Do visual perception and information processing adhere to this cascade near the beginning of life? To date, this three-stage hypothetical cascade has not been comprehensively tested in infants. In two related experiments, we attempted to expose this cascade in 6-month-old infants. Specifically, we presented infants with two levels of visual stimulus intensity, we measured electrical activity at the infant cortex, and we assessed infants' preferential looking behavior. Chromatic saturation provided a convenient stimulus dimension to test the cascade because greater saturation is known to excite increased activity in the primate visual system and is generally hypothesized to stimulate visual preference. Experiment 1 revealed that infants prefer (look longer) at the more saturated of two colors otherwise matched in hue and brightness. Experiment 2 showed increased aggregate neural cortical excitation in infants (and adults) to the more saturated of the same pair of colors. Thus, experiments 1 and 2 taken together confirm a cascade: Visual stimulation of relatively greater intensity evokes relatively greater levels of bioelectrical cortical activity which in turn is associated with relatively greater visual attention. As this cascade obtains near the beginning of life, it helps to account for early visual preferences and visual information processing.

The N270 as an index of consumer commodity color preference in the S1-S2 paradigm

Introduction

Affective decision-making is a prominent topic in consumer psychology research, with its core assumption being that consumers tend to purchase brands and commodities they like. However, the reasons behind why we develop emotional responses of liking or disliking toward certain commodities, as well as what the underlying neural mechanisms are, remain largely unknown.

Methods

This study utilized the S1-S2 paradigm in an experiment wherein S1 presented 12 types of commodities and S2 displayed 48 distinct colored squares. Participants were instructed to assess whether they "Like" or "Dislike" the commodity in S1, which was colored with the S2 color. Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were obtained during the reaction process and subsequently analyzed to examine the components of S2-induced event-related potentials (ERPs).

Results

The analysis revealed that S2 elicited a significant N270 in the prefrontal scalp area under both the "Like" and "Dislike" conditions. Interestingly, the amplitude of the N270 was significantly higher during the "Dislike" condition compared to the "Like" condition.

Discussion

The N270 component was shown to reflect the conflict in physical attributes between S1 and S2, as well as the conflict between commodity and color. This highlights the potential utility of this component as an objective EEG indicator of consumer commodity color preferences in future marketing research.

Color and newborn intensive care unit design: executive summary

Research on color in the design of healthcare settings is minimal. This paper provides an executive summary of a recent review on this topic, focusing on application to newborn intensive care units. The review focuses on the following question: Does the use of color in the design of the newborn intensive care units impact health outcomes in infants, families, and/or staff? We employed a structured review process, resulting in four studies involving the use of color in NICUs. The search was expanded to include general research on responses to color and studies in other healthcare settings. The literature clustered around preferences and psychobiological impact of color on infants and adults in NICUs, the interaction of color and light, and the impact of color on adults in general medical settings. Recommendations are made regarding the importance of modifiability and flexibility in the use of color in NICUs and colors that are associated with stress reduction and stimulation.

Context effects on the perception of saturation of fruit colors in still-life paintings

Still-life painters, especially of the so-called Golden Age (17th century) in the Netherlands, are famous for their masterful techniques of rendering reality. Their amazing abilities to depict different material properties of fruits and flowers are stunning. But how important are these careful arrangements of different objects for the perception of an individual item? Is the perceived color saturation of a single fruit influenced by its surrounding context? We selected fruits in still-life paintings as stimuli to investigate whether and how perceived saturations of fruits were affected by their original contexts. In our study, we focused especially on effects of five context properties: complementary colors, chromatic and luminance contrast, object overlap, and surround variance. Six fruit varieties depicted in high-quality digital reproductions of 48 classic and eight varieties in 64 more recent, modern still-life paintings were selected. In a single trial, eight images of fruits of the same variety appeared on a neutral gray background; half were single fruit cutouts, and the other half were the same fruits embedded in their circular contexts. Fifteen participants ranked all eight images according to perceived color saturations of the fruits. Saturation ratings showed a high agreement of 77%. Surrounding contexts led to an increase in perceived saturation of central fruits. This effect was mainly driven by object overlap, the presence of the central fruit type also in the context, and surround variance. Chroma contrast between fruits and contexts decreased saturation significantly. No significant context effects were found for complementary colors or luminance contrast. Our results show that in paintings, many of the cues that are usually experimentally isolated occur in interesting combinations and lead to an increase in perceived saturation that makes fruit objects more appealing and convincing.

Color and NICU Design

PURPOSE

The appropriate use of color in healthcare settings has been a topic of interest for designers and researchers, and the need for evidence-based standards evident. The purpose of this article is to summarize recent research on color as applicable to neonatal intensive care units and to propose standards for color in these settings.

BACKGROUND

Research on this topic is limited due to difficulties associated with constructing research protocols, challenges in setting parameters for the independent variable (color), and the need to simultaneously address infants, families, and caregivers.

METHODS

For our literature review, the following research question was developed: Does the use of color in the design of the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) impact health outcomes in newborn infants, families, and/or staff? Using Arksey and O'Malley's framework for conducting a structured literature review, we (1) identified the research question, (2) identified relevant studies, (3) selected studies, and (4) collated and summarized the results. Only four papers were found regarding NICUs, so the search was expanded to include related healthcare and authors reporting on best practice.

RESULTS

Overall, the primary research focused on behavioral or physiological outcomes including the role of wayfinding and art, the impact of lighting on color, and tools for evaluating the impact of color. Best practice recommendations sometimes reflected the primary research but occasionally provided contradictory advice.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the reviewed literature, five topics are addressed: palette malleability; the use of the primary colors, blue, red, and yellow; and the relationship between light and color.

The Development of Color Perception and Cognition

Color is a pervasive feature of our psychological experience, having a role in many aspects of human mind and behavior such as basic vision, scene perception, object recognition, aesthetics, and communication. Understanding how humans encode, perceive, talk about, and use color has been a major interdisciplinary effort. Here, we present the current state of knowledge on how color perception and cognition develop. We cover the development of various aspects of the psychological experience of color, ranging from low-level color vision to perceptual mechanisms such as color constancy to phenomena such as color naming and color preference. We also identify neurodiversity in the development of color perception and cognition and implications for clinical and educational contexts. We discuss the theoretical implications of the research for understanding mature color perception and cognition, for identifying the principles of perceptual and cognitive development, and for fostering a broader debate in the psychological sciences.

Infant color perception: Insight into perceptual development

A remarkable amount of perceptual development occurs in the first year after birth. In this article, we spotlight the case of color perception. We outline how within just 6 months, infants go from very limited detection of color as newborns to a more sophisticated perception of color that enables them to make sense of objects and the world around them. We summarize the evidence that by 6 months, infants can perceive the dimensions of color and categorize it, and have at least rudimentary mechanisms to keep color perceptually constant despite variation in illumination. In addition, infants' sensitivity to color relates to statistical regularities of color in natural scenes. We illustrate the contribution of these findings to understanding the development of perceptual skills such as discrimination, categorization, and constancy. We also discuss the relevance of the findings for broader questions about perceptual development and identify directions for research.

Swipes and Saves: A Taxonomy of Factors Influencing Aesthetic Assessments and Perceived Beauty of Mobile Phone Photographs

Digital images taken by mobile phones are the most frequent class of images created today. Due to their omnipresence and the many ways they are encountered, they require a specific focus in research. However, to date, there is no systematic compilation of the various factors that may determine our evaluations of such images, and thus no explanation of how users select and identify relatively “better” or “worse” photos. Here, we propose a theoretical taxonomy of factors influencing the aesthetic appeal of mobile phone photographs. Beyond addressing relatively basic/universal image characteristics, perhaps more related to fast (bottom-up) perceptual processing of an image, we also consider factors involved in the slower (top-down) re-appraisal or deepened aesthetic appreciation of an image. We span this taxonomy across specific types of picture genres commonly taken—portraits of other people, selfies, scenes and food. We also discuss the variety of goals, uses, and contextual aspects of users of mobile phone photography. As a working hypothesis, we propose that two main decisions are often made with mobile phone photographs: (1) Users assess images at a first glance—by swiping through a stack of images—focusing on visual aspects that might be decisive to classify them from “low quality” (too dark, out of focus) to “acceptable” to, in rare cases, “an exceptionally beautiful picture.” (2) Users make more deliberate decisions regarding one’s “favorite” picture or the desire to preserve or share a picture with others, which are presumably tied to aspects such as content, framing, but also culture or personality, which have largely been overlooked in empirical research on perception of photographs. In sum, the present review provides an overview of current focal areas and gaps in research and offers a working foundation for upcoming research on the perception of mobile phone photographs as well as future developments in the fields of image recording and sharing technology.

English colour terms carry gender and valence biases: A corpus study using word embeddings

In Western societies, the stereotype prevails that pink is for girls and blue is for boys. A third possible gendered colour is red. While liked by women, it represents power, stereotypically a masculine characteristic. Empirical studies confirmed such gendered connotations when testing colour-emotion associations or colour preferences in males and females. Furthermore, empirical studies demonstrated that pink is a positive colour, blue is mainly a positive colour, and red is both a positive and a negative colour. Here, we assessed if the same valence and gender connotations appear in widely available written texts (Wikipedia and newswire articles). Using a word embedding method (GloVe), we extracted gender and valence biases for blue, pink, and red, as well as for the remaining basic colour terms from a large English-language corpus containing six billion words. We found and confirmed that pink was biased towards femininity and positivity, and blue was biased towards positivity. We found no strong gender bias for blue, and no strong gender or valence biases for red. For the remaining colour terms, we only found that green, white, and brown were positively biased. Our finding on pink shows that writers of widely available English texts use this colour term to convey femininity. This gendered communication reinforces the notion that results from research studies find their analogue in real word phenomena. Other findings were either consistent or inconsistent with results from research studies. We argue that widely available written texts have biases on their own, because they have been filtered according to context, time, and what is appropriate to be reported.