Children's emotional associations with colors

Harmonizing culture and consumer psychology: optimizing color schemes for children's product design inspired by traditional ornaments

Color is one of the vital components of product design and the choice of color combination is a critical factor that affects consumer reaction and purchase decisions. However, the impact of traditional colors on color extraction and product design has seldom been studied. The purpose of this study is to discover suitable colors from traditional patterns to create color schemes that will be used in the design of children's products. Colors were extracted from five major traditional ornaments obtained from Turkmenistan's national carpets, each representing one of the main Turkmen tribes, using tools like Photoshop, Adobe Color, and EasyRGB, with the objective of investigating psychological-emotional attachment, reaction, and attitudes towards the colors obtained. This initial extraction provided 124 color data points. Initially, extracted colors were refined and used to develop novel color schemes by two independent survey studies. The first survey, based on a sample of 104 parents of preschool children, identified colors that have a positive emotional effect on consumer preferences and provided the basis to develop color schemes. As a result, 25 colors were identified for use in developing 14 color schemes. The second survey, based on a sample of 48 parents of preschool children, identified which color schemes have an attraction for consumers. The survey indicated that 11 out of these 14 schemes were highly favored by the respondents. Based on these results, this study proposed new color schemes for children's products, extracted from traditional patterns of Turkmenistan and aligned with the psychological perception of the consumers.

The effects of color and saturation on the enjoyment of real-life images

This study investigated the effects of color presence and saturation on the affective judgment of real-life images, as functions of the image's affective valence. In the first two experiments, participants observed and rated original color photos and their grayscale versions, presented in an interleaved order across two separate experimental sessions. Color photos were rated as more pleasant than grayscale photos when image valence was positive, and more unpleasant when image valence was negative. The third experiment consisted of the same original images and their versions with saturation reduced by 50%. Original photos were rated as more pleasant than saturation-reduced photos when image valence was positive, yet less unpleasant when image valence was negative, implying potentially separable mechanisms for processing color presence and saturation. Significant interactions were found between color or saturation mode and valence on affective judgment in all three experiments. The effects persisted after controlling for colorfulness and luminance between the color and grayscale (or de-saturated) conditions.

Herbaceous ornamental plants with conspicuous aesthetic traits contribute to plant invasion risk in subtropical urban parks

Global ornamental horticulture is a major pathway for plant invasions, while urban parks are key areas for introducing non-native ornamental plants. To react appropriately to the challenges (e.g., biological invasion issues) and opportunities (e.g., urban ecosystem services) of herbaceous ornamentals in urban parks, we conducted a comprehensive invasive risk assessment in 363 urban parks in Chongqing, a subtropical city in China. The results found more than 1/3 of the 119 non-native species recorded in urban parks had a high invasion risk, and more than five species had potential invasion risk in 96.29% of the study area, indicating herbaceous ornamentals in urban parks are potentially a pool of invasive species that deserves attention. Moreover, humans have chosen herbaceous ornamentals with more aesthetic characteristics in urban parks, where exotic species were more prominent than native species in floral traits, such as more conspicuous flowers and longer flowering periods. The findings can inform urban plant management, provide an integrated approach to assessing herbaceous ornamentals' invasion risk, and offer insights into understanding the filtering effects of human aesthetic preferences.

Determine the impact of Emotive Intelligent Spaces on children's behavioural and cognitive outcomes

This study aims to investigate the impact of a novel environmental intervention-Emotive Intelligent Spaces (EIS) on young children's self-regulation and working memory using a single-subject reversal design (ABAB). EIS is a semi-private space with coloured lights that could adapt to each child's preferred colour based on the child's self-reported emotional state. A total of 29 three-to-seven-year-old participants completed the experiment from fall 2020 to summer 2021. Self-regulation was measured by the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task; working memory was measured by the Woodcock-Johnson Numbers Reversed subset. Children's age was controlled as a covariate. Descriptive statistics indicated that the group means of self-regulation scores were higher in the intervention conditions. However, the group means of working memory scores were lower in the intervention conditions. We conducted repeated measure ANCOVA for the main analysis, and results showed no statistically significant differences in children's self-regulation and working memory scores between baseline and intervention conditions. It is recommended that future studies should take the illuminance level into consideration of the intervention effect. Further, our study implies that avoiding visual overstimulation in the classroom (e.g. heavily decorated walls) may create an optimal level of visual arousal and promote focused attention.

Crossmodal correspondences between visual features and tastes in preschoolers: an exploratory study

Introduction

Adults possess a natural inclination to associate sensory cues derived from distinct modalities, such as the pairing of sweet with pink. However, studies exploring crossmodal correspondences in children, particularly in the sensory pairing of visual features and tastes, are scant, leaving unanswered questions regarding the developmental trajectory of crossmodal correspondences. The present study investigates whether Japanese preschool children demonstrate specific biases in shape-color, shape-taste, and color-taste associations.

Methods

In a series of in-person experiments, 92 children between 3 to 6 years of age completed matching tasks utilizing paper stimuli.

Results

Children exhibit crossmodal correspondences in shape-color (circle-red and asymmetrical star-yellow), shape-taste (triangle-salty and circle-sweet), and color-taste (yellow-sour, black-bitter, and pink-sweet) associations. Moreover, children's choices are not influenced by their individual preferences.

Discussion

The crossmodal correspondences observed in this study have been observed in previous research on adults from the same (Japanese) culture, although adults showed more crossmodal correspondences than the children in this study (e.g., pink-circle, triangle-sour, and green-bitter). Thus, while some crossmodal correspondences emerge during childhood, others may require additional time to develop, thereby highlighting the importance of understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying crossmodal correspondences from an ontogenic perspective.

Colour of Medicines and Children's Acceptability? A Systematic Literature Review of Children's Perceptions about Colours of Oral Dosage Forms

The colour of a product plays an important role in consumer experiences, and in the context of pharmaceutical products, this could potentially affect a patient's expectations, behaviours, and adherence. Several studies have been conducted on adults, but little is known about children's opinions on colours of medicines and to what extent medicines' colour affects their acceptability. To address this gap, a systematic search in PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE, and Web of Science was conducted. Two authors independently screened the titles, abstracts, and references of all articles and selected studies conducted on children (0-18 years old), assessing children's preferences or opinions about colour of oral dosage forms as either a primary or secondary objective or as an anecdotal record. A total of 989 publications were identified and, after screening, 18 publications were included in the review. Red and pink were the most liked colours and there appeared to be a relationship between the colour of a medicine and expected taste/flavour. The review also highlighted a scarcity of information, usually collected as an anecdotal record. Several gaps in the current knowledge were underlined, emphasizing the need of patient-centred studies to understand if the use of certain colours can improve or worsen the acceptability of a paediatric medicine. This will help inform pharmaceutical manufacturers and regulators on the role and need of colours in children's medicines beyond quality purposes.

Red background color biases gender categorization of human faces

Color carries gender information (e.g., red-female). This study explored whether background color could influence the gender categorization of human faces. Visual stimuli were generated from faces whose sexually dimorphic content was morphed monotonically from female to male perception. The face stimulus was presented upright (Experiment 1) and inverted (Experiment 2) with three background colors (i.e., red, green, and gray). Participants were instructed to categorize the gender of the face stimulus as male or female by pressing one of two labelled keys. Results showed that a red background could bias the gender of an ambiguous upright face toward a female compared with green and gray background colors (Experiment 1). However, this red effect was diminished when the face stimulus was inverted (Experiment 2). These results suggest that red background color interacting with facial configuration features biases gender perception toward a female face, possibly through top-down processing of learned associations between the color red and femininity.

Color features continuously represent negative and positive aspects of sadness

Emotion is assumed to be stored in long-term memory as a concept by a feature (e.g., "tears" for "sadness") that is a memory unit of a concept. Memory activation of emotion concepts via features is supposed to enable recognition of emotional states. Emotion concepts are associated with various perceptual features oriented toward the interior and exterior of the body. Although previous studies have revealed that internal perceptual features need to recognize emotional experiences, how external perceptual features contribute to memory representation of emotions is unclear. This study focused on sadness and aimed to identify how color, which is an external perceptual feature, represents sadness in long-term memory. We hypothesized that colors continuously represent positive and negative aspects of sadness. Participants rated the congruency between each of 99 color visual stimuli and five major emotions, six sadness-related situations, and five psychological properties. Consistent with the prediction, two bluish color groups appeared to represent sadness based on emotional congruency ratings. Colors with the highest sadness ratings were related to dark and dull bluish ones. On the other hand, lighter bluish colors mixed with green appearance were similarly congruent with both sadness and happiness. The lightness properties of these sadness-related bluish colors continuously represent sadness dominancy (sadness rating minus happiness rating). Additionally, sadness dominancy of each sadness-related color group was differently associated with sadness-related situations. These findings indicate that color features contribute to memory representation of sadness in association with situations and that color features continuously instantiate negative and positive aspects of sadness.

Colors and Learner’s Gender Evoke Different Emotional and Cognitive Effects in Multimedia Learning

The emotional design principle avers that highly saturated warm colors in multimedia learning presentations can elevate affective-motivational, cognitive, and learning outcomes. While warm and achromatic grayscale color tones have been explored extensively, relatively less research examines the effects of cold colors in multimedia learning. This study explores how color tones (warm, cold, and achromatic grayscale) and learners’ gender influence positive emotions, intrinsic motivation, cognitive load, and transfer performance. An online experiment was conducted where learners pursuing IT courses in an Asian university ( $n=204$ ) engaged with either one of the multimedia learning lessons on distributed denial-of-service attack imbued with (1) a warm color tone, (2) a cold color tone, and (3) an achromatic grayscale color tone. Findings show that the cold color tone was associated with fewer enhanced positive emotion types than the other color tones. Compared to the achromatic grayscale color tone ( $M=2.38$ , $\text{SD}=1.88$ ), significantly higher extraneous cognitive load ratings were observed with the warm color tone ( $M=3.26$ , $\text{SD}=1.96$ ) and the cold color tone ( $M=3.24$ , $\text{SD}=2.18$ ). Following reports by some learners, this could be attributed to the overly vivid and saturated chromatic colors impairing the learners’ visual and cognitive processes, causing them to rate the multimedia learning experience with warm and cold color tones as more difficult than with the achromatic grayscale color tone. Male learners in the warm color tone condition ( $M=4.93$ , $\text{SD}=3.46$ ) performed marginally better on the transfer posttest than male learners in the cold color tone condition ( $M=3.49$ , $\text{SD}=3.45$ ) and male learners in the achromatic grayscale color tone condition ( $M=3.44$ , $\text{SD}=2.69$ ). In contrast, female learners in the warm color tone condition ( $M=1.75$ , $\text{SD}=1.62$ ) performed marginally worse than female learners in the cold color tone condition ( $M=3.83$ , $\text{SD}=3.92$ ) and significantly worse than female learners in the achromatic grayscale color tone condition ( $M=3.67$ , $\text{SD}=2.50$ ). Overall, these results show that gender can shape the effects of warm colors on learning—the warm color tone can enhance male learners’ but stifle female learners’ transfer performance. Moreover, this study aligns with recent studies that colors as an emotional design feature may lead to higher cognitive load ratings. This paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications and submits a future outlook for broadening the research domain.

Effects of color–emotion association on facial expression judgments

Color and emotion are metaphorically associated in the human mind. This color–emotion association affects perceptual judgment. For example, stimuli representing colors can affect judgment of facial expressions. The present study examined whether colors associated with happiness (e.g., yellow) and sadness (e.g., blue and gray) facilitate judgments of the associated emotions in facial expressions. We also examined whether temporal proximity between color and facial stimuli interacts with any of these effects. Participants were presented with pictures of a happy or sad face against a yellow-, blue-, or gray-colored background and asked to judge whether the face represented happiness or sadness as quickly as possible. The face stimulus was presented simultaneously (Experiment 1) or preceded for one second by the colored background (Experiment 2). The analysis of response time showed that yellow facilitated happiness judgment, while neither blue nor gray facilitated sadness judgment. Moreover, the effect was found only when the face and color stimuli were presented simultaneously. The results imply that the association of sadness with blue and gray is weak and, consequently, does not affect emotional judgment. Our results also suggest that temporal proximity is critical for the effect of the color–emotion association (e.g., yellow–happiness) on emotional judgment.

What colour should I wear? How clothing colour affects women's judgement of other women's body attractiveness and body size

Research has indicated that female body perception and associated body-viewing gaze behaviour in women viewers can be influenced by a variety of internal and external factors (e.g., own body satisfaction, clothing style, and viewing angle). Although the clothing colour affects women's visual and aesthetic appearance rated by men or women wearer themselves, its impact on women judging other women's body attractiveness and body size is largely unclear. In this eye-tracking study we presented female body images of Caucasian and African avatars in a continuum of common dress sizes wearing different colours (black, grey, white, red, green and blue), and asked 31 young Caucasian women to rate the perceived body attractiveness and body size. Our analysis revealed that clothing colour black and red attracted the highest body attractiveness and slimmer body size ratings, whereas green and grey induced the lowest body attractiveness and overestimated body size judgements. Such colour-induced modulatory effect on body perception was further influenced by the avatar race (or skin tone; e.g., higher attractiveness ratings for colours white, blue and green in African than in Caucasian avatars), and was associated with the changes of body-viewing gaze allocation at the upper body and waist-hip regions (i.e. colour black and white attracting more viewing at the upper body and waist-hip regions, respectively). Taken together, it seems that the clothing colour and its contrast with skin tone play valuable roles in mediating women's body perception of other women.

Color-Induced Aroma Illusion: Color Cues Can Modulate Consumer Perception, Acceptance, and Emotional Responses toward Cooked Rice

Since rice is often cooked in many countries with different types of ingredients or seasonings, the surface colors of traditional rice meal items vary across cultural backgrounds. This study aimed to determine whether consumer perception, acceptance, willingness to eat, and emotional responses toward cooked rice samples could differ with their surface color cues. Milled rice was cooked with one of three food colorants: yellow, orange, and green, with milled (white) and un-milled (brown) rice cooked without colorants used as respective test and filler samples. Using a check-all-that-apply method, 98 rice consumers checked all aroma attributes they perceived by sniffing each of the four cooked-rice samples (white, yellow, orange, and green). They also rated the four samples with respect to attribute intensity, liking, emotional responses, and willingness to eat. The results showed that participants associated colored rice with specific ingredient-related aroma attributes (e.g., green color elicited sweet peas or spinach aromas). Color cues also affected ratings of attribute intensity, liking, willingness to eat, and emotional responses to cooked rice samples. In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence that in the context of cooked rice consumption, color cues can elicit associated aromas and modulate consumer perception, acceptance, and evoked emotions to cooked rice.

'It has candy. You need to press on it': young adults' perceptions of flavoured cigarettes in the Philippines

BACKGROUND

The Philippines has a high smoking prevalence and one of the largest tobacco menthol market shares in the world. Flavour capsule cigarettes were introduced to the Philippines in 2013, most of which are menthol flavoured, and their market share is increasing. We explored perceptions of flavoured cigarette packaging among young adult Filipinos.

METHODS

We conducted eight focus groups with 63 young adults ages 18-24 years in Manila in 2019, stratified by gender and smoking status. We conducted a thematic analysis of the transcripts.

RESULTS

Most participants assessed relative harm of cigarettes based on strength, mainly determined by colour of the packaging. Menthol cigarettes with primarily blue packaging were considered less harmful than menthol cigarettes with primarily green packaging. Many participants considered flavour capsule packs most attractive, compared with non-flavoured and traditional menthol cigarettes, due to the colouring of the packs and expectations regarding taste. Some participants likened the capsules and the taste of flavour capsule cigarettes to candy, and many participants thought flavour capsule cigarettes would most likely be smoked by teenagers or young adults.

CONCLUSIONS

Young adult Filipinos believe that some menthol-flavoured cigarettes are less harmful than other flavoured cigarettes and non-flavoured cigarettes and find flavour capsule cigarettes attractive. A tobacco flavour ban and implementation of plain packaging might help reduce misperceptions of risk and make cigarettes less appealing.

The nurses' uniform in pediatrics, the opinion of children and nurses

Background and aim:

The nursing uniform represents a non-verbal mean of communication which in the case of children can arouse positive or negative emotions. The first study conducted on a sample of 107 children, aimed to define their preferences on different models of decorated nursing uniforms; the second one conducted on 101 nurses to understand the preferences, the meanings attributed to the uniform and their availability to adapt it according to the preferences expressed by the children.

Methods:

We conducted an observational study with a qualitative approach. For the first objective with the children, a visual stimulus was used, showing 6 models of uniform: the traditional plus 5 models of different colors and themes (cartoons characters and videogames). For the second objective with the nurses, in addition to reproducing the same visual stimulus, a semi-structured questionnaire was used.

Results:

Children and nurses seem to be in perfect accord, because in both groups, color models were the most chosen. Nurses defined their uniform with terms of particular moral, intellectual and professional value and declared themselves available to align with the preferences of the children.

Conclusions:

This study leaves little doubt about preferences; it also represents the true originality of the study because almost never in the literature have been compared the point of views of children and professionals, generally favoring the comparison between children and care givers. Our findings could represent a further landmark for guiding the choices of health organizations on currencies to be adopted in the pediatric field. (www.actabiomedica.it)

A Scoping Review of the Impact on Children of the Built Environment Design Characteristics of Healing Spaces

Aim:

This article elucidates current understanding in pediatric healthcare building design via scoping review of research on the impacts on the health and well-being of children of the architectural and landscape characteristics of healing spaces.

Background:

Studies indicate that patients’ phenomenological experiences of the built environment characteristics of healthcare buildings can impact their healing and well-being. It follows that understanding the healing effects of landscape and architecture can inform the design of healthcare settings for increased health benefits.

Method:

This method comprises five search stages: (1) research question is formed; (2) key words, search terms, and search strategy are identified; (3) databases are searched, and papers are assessed via inclusion and exclusion criteria; (4) information of the selected articles is extracted and summarized; and (5) key findings are interpreted and reported via comparative tabulation.

Results:

One hundred seventy-three papers were found during the first search stage. After screening and evaluating for relevance and quality, 13 articles were selected for study. Analysis indicates that the built environment characteristics of pediatric healthcare environments that have healing benefits include access to nature, music, art and natural light, reduced crowding, reduced noise, and soft, cyclical, and user-controlled artificial lighting.

Conclusions:

While it is important to understand the design variables that influence pediatric healthcare, it is also necessary to contextualize them and to distinguish these variables from each other and appreciate their interaction. In other words, a more rounded understanding of these variables is required via research so that their individual and combined impacts are reflected in holistic design recommendations.

Anatomy Teaching, a "Model" Answer? Evaluating "Geoff", a Painted Anatomical Horse, as a Tool for Enhancing Topographical Anatomy Learning

Development of new methods for anatomy teaching is increasingly important as we look to modernize and supplement traditional teaching methods. In this study, a life-sized equine model, "Geoff," was painted with surface and deep anatomical structures with the aim of improving students' ability to convert theoretical knowledge into improved topographical anatomy knowledge on the live horse. Third and fourth year veterinary medicine students (n = 45) were randomly allocated into experimental (used "Geoff") and control (used textbook) groups. The efficacy of the model was evaluated through a structured oral exam using a live horse. Questionnaires gathered information on student confidence and enjoyment of the task. There was no significant difference in the performance of experimental and control groups either immediately (44±20% vs. 40±21%; P = 0.504) or 9 weeks after the learning intervention (55±17% vs. 55±20%; P = 0.980). There were however specific questions on which the experimental group performed better than controls, and for which gender effects were apparent. The students using "Geoff" showed a transient gain in confidence following the session (Likert scale 2.7 to 3.6) however the initial increase was no longer present at the second test. There was a significant influence of gender on confidence with greater confidence gains in females in the Experimental group. The students found the model to be extremely useful and both groups found the sessions enjoyable. The model will be of benefit as a complementary learning tool for students.

Development of a Sensory Method to Detect Food-Elicited Emotions Using Emotion-Color Association and Eye-Tracking

Studying consumers’ implicit emotions has been always described as a difficult and a complicated mission due to the emotions being of a non-cognitive nature. This research aims to develop a new method based on emotion-color association (ECA) to detect consumer’s implicit food-elicited emotions using an eye-tracker tool. The study was accomplished in two experiments. The first experiment intended to build a new color scale based on the emotion-color association using the eye-tracking method and a self-reported questionnaire (SRQ). The results showed that people tend to express their evoked positive emotions by choosing mostly the light colors, and favor to choose dark colors to reveal their evoked negative emotions. In the second experiment, a sensory evaluation was conducted employing the developed color scale in addition to verbal emotion-based questionnaire (VEQ) to detect the participants’ food-elicited emotions with different samples. The sensory evaluation consisted of taste, smell, and vision tests. The study demonstrated a consistency between the results of the verbal emotion questionnaire and the new color scale method. This consistency may refer to the capability of the developed scale, as a non-intrusive method that obtains prompt responses and avoids deliberate action, to rapidly detect the implicit emotions in a sensory evaluation for a better understanding of the consumer’s behavior.

What Color Is Your Anger? Assessing Color-Emotion Pairings in English Speakers

Do English-speakers think about anger as “red” and sadness as “blue”? Some theories of emotion suggests that color(s)—like other biologically-derived signals- should be reliably paired with an emotion, and that colors should differentiate across emotions. We assessed consistency and specificity for color-emotion pairings among English-speaking adults. In study 1, participants (n = 73) completed an online survey in which they could select up to three colors from 23 colored swatches (varying hue, saturation, and light) for each of ten emotion words. In study 2, different participants (n = 52) completed a similar online survey except that we added additional emotions and colors (which better sampled color space). Participants in both studies indicated the strength of the relationship between a selected color(s) and the emotion. In study 1, four of the ten emotions showed consistency, and about one-third of the colors showed specificity, yet agreement was low-to-moderate among raters even in these cases. When we resampled our data, however, none of these effects were likely to replicate with statistical confidence. In study 2, only two of 20 emotions showed consistency, and three colors showed specificity. As with the first study, no color-emotion pairings were both specific and consistent. In addition, in study 2, we found that saturation and lightness, and to a lesser extent hue, predicted color-emotion agreement rather than perceived color. The results suggest that previous studies which report emotion-color pairings are likely best thought of experiment-specific. The results are discussed with respect to constructionist theories of emotion.

Colour associations in children and adults

A growing body of research has investigated how we associate colours and social traits. Specifically, studies have explored the links between red and perceptions of qualities like attractiveness and anger. Although less is known about other colours, the prevailing framework suggests that the specific context plays a significant role in determining how a particular colour might affect our perceptions of a person or item. Importantly, this factor has yet to be considered for children's colour associations, where researchers focused on links between colours and emotions, rather than social traits. Here, we consider whether context-specific colour associations are demonstrated by 5- to 10-year-old children and compare these associations with adult data collected on the same task. We asked participants to rank order sets of six identical images (e.g., a boy completing a test), which varied only in the colour of a single item (his T-shirt). Each question was tailored to the image set to address a specific context, for example, "Which boy do you think looks the most likely to cheat on a test?" Our findings revealed several colour associations shared by children, and many of these were also present in adults, although some had strengthened or weakened by this stage of life. Taken together, our results demonstrate the presence of both stable and changing context-specific colour associations during development, revealing a new area of study for further exploration.

A Historically Based Review of Empirical Work on Color and Psychological Functioning: Content, Methods, and Recommendations for Future Research

Empirical work on color and psychological functioning has a long history, dating back to the 19th century. This early research focused on five different areas: Arousal, physical strength, preference, time perception, and attention. In the present paper, I overview the relations observed in this early research, and detail methodological weaknesses therein. I then trace subsequent 20th and 21st century developments in these research areas, in terms of both content and methods. Finally, I extend the review to cover the full breadth of research in this domain of inquiry, and provide guidelines for interpreting existing work and conducting future work. Thus, this historically based review tells us much about research on color and psychological functioning, including where it started, where it has been, where it is, and where it can go.

Do Preschoolers Recognize The Emotional Expressiveness of Colors in Realistic and Abstract Art Paintings?

The present study was designed to examine preschoolers' ability to recognize the emotional expressiveness of an art painting, through its colors. To attain this aim 78 children, 3-5 years old were presented with realistic and abstract paintings conveying either happiness or sadness and were asked to choose those which matched the appropriate emotion. In total 16 paintings were used, which varied in color, while their subject matter was held as constant as possible after they had been previously rated by a group of adults to ensure that they conveyed the two emotions under investigation. Results showed that children's ability to recognize the emotional expressiveness of a painting through its colors appears at 3 years old and increases significantly at 4 and 5 years old. It was also found that the mood of happiness was more easily recognized than that of sadness, while the style of art paintings (realistic vs. abstract) did not affect children's ability to recognize emotions.

Neural mechanism for hypothalamic-mediated autonomic responses to light during migraine

Migraineurs avoid light because it intensifies their headache. However, this is not the only reason for their aversion to light. Studying migraineurs and control subjects, we found that lights triggered more changes in autonomic functions and negative emotions during, rather than in the absence of, migraine or in control subjects, and that the association between light and positive emotions was stronger in control subjects than migraineurs. Seeking to define a neuroanatomical substrate for these findings, we showed that, in rats, axons of retinal ganglion cells converge on hypothalamic neurons that project directly to nuclei in the brainstem and spinal cord that regulate parasympathetic and sympathetic functions and contain dopamine, histamine, orexin, melanin-concentrating hormone, oxytocin, and vasopressin. Although the rat studies define frameworks for conceptualizing how light triggers the symptoms described by patients, the human studies suggest that the aversive nature of light is more complex than its association with headache intensification.

Assessment of the Impact of Colors on Child’s Anxiety and Treatment Preference for Local Anesthesia Injections

Aim:

To assess the impact of colors on child’s anxiety and treatment preference for local anesthesia injections.

Material and Method:

The study group consisted of 100 randomly selected children aged 9 years. A specially prepared proforma was used to record personal information and history. Anxiety was assessed using faces version of the Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scale and children were categorized as anxious and non-anxious in the playroom. In the dental operatory, dental injectors (conventional plastic injector and six different colored plastic injectors) were displayed on a tray and were introduced to the children. The children were asked to consider which injectors they would prefer “if their tooth had to be put to sleep,” and their preferences were noted starting with their first choice. Sheets with stylized cartoon drawing of faces (modified Venham Picture Test) with six different emotions (happy, scared, crying, sad, angry, and running away) opposite line drawings of colored dental injectors were distributed. All the children were asked to match the cartoon faces with the injectors as per their preference. The data was collected and statistical analysis was done using SPSS 19.0.

Results:

A response analysis was performed in Microsoft excel, and frequencies were noted for color preferences in males and females. Significant differences between genders as well as different colors association was found.

Conclusion:

Reducing child’s anxiety through remodeling of physical appearance and color of dental instruments could be a potential modality of behavior management that needs further research.

Preferences and choices of a child concerning the environment in a pediatric dental operatory

Background:

The aim of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to determine children's preferences in a dental clinic so as to reduce anxiety during dental procedures. In this study survey methodology was used.

Materials and Methods:

A questionnaire was designed to evaluate the child's preference in a dental hospital so as to remove anxiety during a dental procedure. This study was carried out on 50 children aged 6–10 years. The children were randomly selected based on their first dental visit in a private dental college.

Results:

A large number of children preferred listening to rhymes and watching cartoons while undergoing dental treatment. They also preferred the walls painted with cartoons, the dental chair full of toys, a scented environment, and the presence of their parents during the treatment.

Conclusion:

The results of this study will help the dental team decide on the appropriate design of the pediatric dental operatory room in order to provide a comfortable dental environment which will reduce anxiety in children and improve the quality of health care.

Mimological Reveries? Disconfirming the Hypothesis of Phono-Emotional Iconicity in Poetry

The present study retested previously reported empirical evidence suggesting an iconic relation between sound and emotional meaning in poetry. To this end, we analyzed the frequency of certain phoneme classes in 48 German poems and correlated them with ratings for emotional classification. Our analyses provide evidence for a link between the emotional classification of poems (joyful vs. sad) and the perception of tonal contrast as reflected in the attribution of phenomenological sound qualia (bright vs. dark). However, we could not confirm any of the previous hypotheses and findings regarding either a connection between the frequencies of occurrence of specific vowel classes and the perception of tonal contrast, or a relation between the frequencies of occurrence of consonant classes and emotional classification.

Colour Preference to Emotions in Relation to the Anxiety Level among School Children in Puducherry - A Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION

Dental setting plays an important role in child's behavior and cooperation to the planned dental treatment. Adding attractive colours to the dental environment and by incorporating colourful equipments can make the child feel good and be at ease. This study tries to convey the relationship between colours and dental anxiety among children.

AIM

To evaluate the colour preference to emotions in relation to children's age, gender and anxiety level.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 382 children aged 6-12 years were randomly selected from schools in and around Puducherry. Modified dental anxiety scale was recorded by a calibrated examiner. Each question was scored from one (not anxious) to five (extremely anxious); such that the total score ranges from 5 to 25, wherein a score of 15 or more was considered to be anxious. Based on this, children were divided into anxious and non-anxious groups. All the children were provided with eight different coloured crayon pencils and were asked to shade two cartoon emoticons indicating happiness and sadness with their preferred colour. Values were tabulated and statistically analyzed to evaluate the association between the variables using Z test, Chi-square, Chi-square goodness of fit and odds ratio. (p≤0.05 was considered statistically significant).

RESULTS

Among 382 children, 77% (294) were graded as anxious and 23% (88) as non- anxious. For positive emotion (happiness), 31.2% (119) children preferred blue followed by pink 29.3% (112). For negative emotion (sadness), 52.1% (199) of children preferred black and 46.9% (179) preferred red. Association between colour and emotion was highly significant (p= 0.005).

CONCLUSION

From the colours preferred by the children in our study, it can be concluded that colours like blue and pink in the dental set-up could enhance a positive attitude while black and red could develop a negative outlook in their mind.

Preferences for Pink and Blue: The Development of Color Preferences as a Distinct Gender-Typed Behavior in Toddlers

Many gender differences are thought to result from interactions between inborn factors and sociocognitive processes that occur after birth. There is controversy, however, over the causes of gender-typed preferences for the colors pink and blue, with some viewing these preferences as arising solely from sociocognitive processes of gender development. We evaluated preferences for gender-typed colors, and compared them to gender-typed toy and activity preferences in 126 toddlers on two occasions separated by 6-8 months (at Time 1, M = 29 months; range 20-40). Color preferences were assessed using color cards and neutral toys in gender-typed colors. Gender-typed toy and activity preferences were assessed using a parent-report questionnaire, the Preschool Activities Inventory. Color preferences were also assessed for the toddlers' parents using color cards. A gender difference in color preferences was present between 2 and 3 years of age and strengthened near the third birthday, at which time it was large (d > 1). In contrast to their parents, toddlers' gender-typed color preferences were stronger and unstable. Gender-typed color preferences also appeared to establish later and were less stable than gender-typed toy and activity preferences. Gender-typed color preferences were largely uncorrelated with gender-typed toy and activity preferences. These results suggest that the factors influencing gender-typed color preferences and gender-typed toy and activity preferences differ in some respects. Our findings suggest that sociocognitive influences and play with gender-typed toys that happen to be made in gender-typed colors contribute to toddlers' gender-typed color preferences.

Colour fluctuations in grapheme-colour synaesthesia: The effect of clinical and non-clinical mood changes

Synaesthesia is a condition that gives rise to unusual secondary sensations (e.g., colours are perceived when listening to music). These unusual sensations tend to be reported as being stable throughout adulthood (e.g., Simner & Logie, 2007, Neurocase, 13, 358) and the consistency of these experiences over time is taken as the behavioural hallmark of genuineness. Our study looked at the influence of mood states on synaesthetic colours. In Experiment 1, we recruited grapheme-colour synaesthetes (who experience colours from letters/digits) and elicited their synaesthetic colours, as well as their mood and depression states, in two different testing sessions. In each session, participants completed the PANAS-X (Watson & Clark, 1999) and the BDI-II (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996, Manual for Beck Depression Inventory-II), and chose their synaesthetic colours for letters A-Z from an interactive colour palette. We found that negative mood significantly decreased the luminance of synaesthetic colours. In Experiment 2, we showed that synaesthetic colours were also less luminant for synaesthetes with anxiety disorder, versus those without. Additional evidence suggests that colour saturation, too, may inversely correlate with depressive symptoms. These results show that fluctuations in mood within both a normal and clinical range influence synaesthetic colours over time. This has implications for our understanding about the longitudinal stability of synaesthetic experiences, and of how mood may interact with the visual (imagery) systems.

Public information use in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens)

The discernment of resource quality is pertinent to many daily decisions faced by animals. Public information is a critical information source that promotes quality assessments, attained by monitoring others' performance. Here we provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use public information to guide resource selection. Thirty-two chimpanzees were presented with two simultaneous video demonstrations depicting a conspecific acquiring resources at a fast (resource-rich) or slow (resource-poor) rate. Subsequently, subjects selected the resource-rich site above chance expectation. As a comparison, we report evidence of public information use in young children. Investigation of public information use in primates is pertinent, as it can enhance foraging success and potentially facilitate payoff-biased social learning.

Optimal color design of psychological counseling room by design of experiments and response surface methodology

Color is one of the most powerful aspects of a psychological counseling environment. Little scientific research has been conducted on color design and much of the existing literature is based on observational studies. Using design of experiments and response surface methodology, this paper proposes an optimal color design approach for transforming patients’ perception into color elements. Six indices, pleasant-unpleasant, interesting-uninteresting, exciting-boring, relaxing-distressing, safe-fearful, and active-inactive, were used to assess patients’ impression. A total of 75 patients participated, including 42 for Experiment 1 and 33 for Experiment 2. 27 representative color samples were designed in Experiment 1, and the color sample (L = 75, a = 0, b = -60) was the most preferred one. In Experiment 2, this color sample was set as the ‘central point’, and three color attributes were optimized to maximize the patients’ satisfaction. The experimental results show that the proposed method can get the optimal solution for color design of a counseling room.

Color Perception in Pediatric Patient Room Design: American versus Korean Pediatric Patients

OBJECTIVE:

This study simultaneously addresses the issues of the scarcity of information about pediatric patient color preferences, conflicting findings about the impact of culture on color preferences, and limitations of previous research instruments. Effects of culture and gender on color preferences were investigated using American and Korean pediatric patients.

BACKGROUND:

Much of the existing research in environmental design has focused on environments for healthy children and adults, but those findings cannot be confidently applied to environments for pediatric patients. In previous studies, the impact of culture on color preferences has been suggested, though the effects appear to vary. Moreover, the results of previous studies were typically based on perceptions of small color chips, which are different from seeing a color on wall surfaces. Previous studies also failed to control for confounding variables such as color attributes and light sources.

METHODS:

Instead of using color chips, this study used physical model simulation to investigate environmental color preferences in real contexts.

RESULTS:

Cultural difference was found in white. Other than white, no significant cultural difference was found. Gender differences were found across both of the groups.

CONCLUSIONS:

Korean pediatric patients showed significantly higher preference scores for white than Americans did. Other than white, both groups reported blue and green as their most preferred colors; white was the least preferred. Both groups reported similar gender effects. Overall, male patients reported significantly lower preference scores for red and purple than female patients did. These results can help healthcare providers and professionals better understand appropriate colors for pediatric populations.

The Manchester Colour Wheel: Enhancing its Utility

The Manchester Colour Wheel was developed to investigate the role of colour in the perception of illness in gastroenterology. During validation it was found that positive, neutral, or negative connotations of the shade of a colour were more important than the colour itself. However, when asked to relate mood to a colour, the response rate was greater in individuals with mood disorders than healthy controls. This study assessed whether response rate could be made more uniform by changing the wording of the question. Mood / colour choice was compared, using two slightly different questions, in 105 and 203 healthy volunteers, resulting in response rates of 39% and 95% respectively, with the latter not associated with increased false positive responses. These results show that adjustment of the wording of a mood-related question may allow equal response rates irrespective of the mood status of participants.