Color-Shape Associations Revealed with Implicit Association Tests
Kandinsky proposed a correspondence theory that suggests associations between specific colors and shapes (i.e., circle-blue, square-red, triangle-yellow). Makin and Wuerger tested the theory using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and did not find clear evidence for Kandinsky’s color-shape associa...
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| Format: | Online |
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Public Library of Science
2015
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4308101/ |
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pubmed-4308101 |
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oai_dc |
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pubmed-43081012015-02-06 Color-Shape Associations Revealed with Implicit Association Tests Chen, Na Tanaka, Kanji Watanabe, Katsumi Research Article Kandinsky proposed a correspondence theory that suggests associations between specific colors and shapes (i.e., circle-blue, square-red, triangle-yellow). Makin and Wuerger tested the theory using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and did not find clear evidence for Kandinsky’s color-shape associations among British participants. In the present study, we first replicated the previous study among Japanese participants and found similar results to those of Makin and Wuerger, showing little support for Kandinsky’s theory. In the subsequent experiment, we tested another set of color-shape associations that had been revealed by using an explicit matching method (circle-red, square-blue, triangle-yellow) in Japanese participants. The IAT tests showed that response times were significantly faster when circle-red, square-blue, and triangle-yellow combinations were mapped onto the same response key, rather than different key combinations, indicating that these color-shape combinations were encoded. These results provide the first empirical evidence that color-shape associations can be measured by indirect behavioral methods, and in particular, Japanese people’s color-shape associations (circle-red, square-blue, triangle-yellow) can be observed by both direct and indirect experimental methods. Public Library of Science 2015-01-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4308101/ /pubmed/25625717 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0116954 Text en © 2015 Chen et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Chen, Na Tanaka, Kanji Watanabe, Katsumi |
| spellingShingle |
Chen, Na Tanaka, Kanji Watanabe, Katsumi Color-Shape Associations Revealed with Implicit Association Tests |
| author_facet |
Chen, Na Tanaka, Kanji Watanabe, Katsumi |
| author_sort |
Chen, Na |
| title |
Color-Shape Associations Revealed with Implicit Association Tests |
| title_short |
Color-Shape Associations Revealed with Implicit Association Tests |
| title_full |
Color-Shape Associations Revealed with Implicit Association Tests |
| title_fullStr |
Color-Shape Associations Revealed with Implicit Association Tests |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Color-Shape Associations Revealed with Implicit Association Tests |
| title_sort |
color-shape associations revealed with implicit association tests |
| description |
Kandinsky proposed a correspondence theory that suggests associations between specific colors and shapes (i.e., circle-blue, square-red, triangle-yellow). Makin and Wuerger tested the theory using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and did not find clear evidence for Kandinsky’s color-shape associations among British participants. In the present study, we first replicated the previous study among Japanese participants and found similar results to those of Makin and Wuerger, showing little support for Kandinsky’s theory. In the subsequent experiment, we tested another set of color-shape associations that had been revealed by using an explicit matching method (circle-red, square-blue, triangle-yellow) in Japanese participants. The IAT tests showed that response times were significantly faster when circle-red, square-blue, and triangle-yellow combinations were mapped onto the same response key, rather than different key combinations, indicating that these color-shape combinations were encoded. These results provide the first empirical evidence that color-shape associations can be measured by indirect behavioral methods, and in particular, Japanese people’s color-shape associations (circle-red, square-blue, triangle-yellow) can be observed by both direct and indirect experimental methods. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2015 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4308101/ |
| _version_ |
1613181286817464320 |