When You Sense Nothing At All

Perceiving colors could serve a lot of important things to us, yet most of the time we take them for granted. Colors could be defined as “product of a light energy in different wavelengths, reflected by objects” (Rosenbloom, 2006, p.230). Colors could also serve as everyday signals for our survival (Goldstein, 2010). But the most obvious purpose of color is bring beauty or aesthetics to our world. Perceiving colors also induces specific feelings; it also aids us in expressing our moods and emotions. These functions may actually be the reason why we have favorite or preferred colors.

According to Rosenbloom (2006), color preference is actually one of the basic elements in art and art therapy. For instance, a study by Gregoryan, Azaryan, DeMaria, and McDonald (1996; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006) suggested that posttraumatic children used black, red, and white colors during their first therapeutic session. Also, colors black and brown tended to be selected by depressed patients (Nolan, Dai, and Stanley, 1995; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006). The basic premise held and provided by these researches is that specific colors produce and/or are associated with certain moods and emotions just as mention earlier. In connection to this, Rosenbloom (2006) categorizes colors into two and named them as “hot” and “cold” colors.

Hot colors include those that have long wavelengths; specifically these colors are yellow, red, orange, yellow-orange, red-orange, and red-violet. These colors are called “hot” because they arouse, stimulate, excite, attract, and at the same time irritate the receiver or observers of these colors.

Outstanding from these colors is red; Luscher and Scott (1971; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006) described this color as representing an energy-expanding physiological condition, speeding up the pulse, raising the blood pressure, and increasing the respiration rate— an expression of vital force. Furthermore, it also has the meaning of desire, appetite, and craving. Red also represents the urge to achieve results, win success; the impulse towards struggle, sex, sport, and competition. (Luscher & Scott, 1971; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006).

Another category is called the “cold” colors (Rosenbloom, 2006). These colors include the shorter wavelengths, namely violet, blue, green, blue-violet, blue-green, and green-yellow. These colors are calming, cooling, retreating, and also shrinking.

If red is the most notable color in the hot color category, for the cold colors, it is blue. Luscher and Scott (1971) also described the effects of perceiving this color. Unlike the stimulating effects of color red, they said that blue has a pacifying effect on the central nervous system— blood pressure, pulse, and respiration rate are all decreased or reduced. Thus, blue may represent loyalty and harmony.

Black, white, and grays are achromatic colors, and so were not included to any of these categories.

Colors and color preference had also been associated with some mental disorders such as schizophrenia (i.e. Cernovsky & Fernando, 1988; cited in Rosenbloom, 2006) and with personality traits (Eysenck, 1941; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006). One of the hypotheses of Rosenbloom’s study (2006) is that people who are highly sensation seeking— meaning those who are seeking varied, complex, novel, and intense sensations and experiences— would prefer to use “hot” colors in the experiment wherein participants are asked to color the cloth of a human picture. Sensation seeking was further explained by referring it to the optimal level of arousal and stimulation, regulated by catecholamine, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Rosenbloom also hypothesized that sensation seekers would tend to use more colors in the experiment; to add to this, he also looked at the gender differences.

In the experiment, 30 male and 30 female were asked to color a drawn human figure’s clothes by using paints, unaware of the real purpose of the study. After this color-the-drawing task, where they were also observed by the researcher, each participant had to answer the Sensation Seeking Scale V (SSS; Zuckerman, as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006) in order to assess their personality trait, particularly the different dimensions of the sensation seeking domain of personality traits.

Just to note, sensation seeking is also composed of four traits which includes thrill and adventure seeking (TAS), adventure seeking (ES), disinhibition (DIS), and boredom susceptibility (BS). TAS is the attraction to thrill and dread; ES as the aspiration to go through variety of novel and unconventional experiences; DIS is the loss of self control; and BS is the intolerance toward repetitious, monotonous, or predictable people and events. Previous research had demonstrated that TAS is related to art preference (Rawlings, Barrantes i Vidal, & Furnham,2000; cited in Rosenbloom, 2006).

With the simple procedure of the experiment, results show support to the first hypothesis as a positive correlation was found between color preference and degree of sensation seeking, particularly with subscale TAS (r=.26, p=.04). On the other hand, the hypothesis that sensation seekers or those who avoid boredom would use more colors than those who are in the opposite side of the continuum was only partially supported. Apparently TAS was not involved with divergent selection of colors but DIS. That is, individuals scoring high on disinhibition tend to use more colors than those with lower scores. From the past studies, it was found that disinhibition, the loss of self-control, is related to liking abstract and pop art as well as to surreal painting (Furnham & Avison, 1997; Furnham & walker, 2001; as cited in Rosenbloom, 2006). Unparallel results to hypothesis thus call for future investigation. Likewise, as previous studies had also shown inconsistent gender difference of color preferences, the present study did not show any as well, calling for future investigation too.

To summarize, studies show association between color preference and personality trait, particularly in the domain of openness to experience, specifically the sensation seeking’s subscale, thrill and adventure seeking. Implying that when one prefers to use red or other "hot" colors, he or she is more adventure seeker compare to another who prefers blue or other "cold" colors who are more calm and used to patterned and routine life and relating it to the physiological effects of these colors to our body and also to our emotions as mentioned in the earlier explanations.

Reference:
Rosenbloom, T. (2006). Color preferences of high and low sensation seekers. Creativity Research Journal. 18(2). 229-235. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Goldstein, E. B. (2010). Sensation and perception (8th ed.). California, USA: Wadsworth.

If you're exactly where I am right now, you would be on your last semester in school and you would be graduating soon. Not only that, you're probably already frantically looking for a job that pays good money.

Having problems with your academic performance in school? There might be an explanation for that! Some says intelligence affects academic performance and intelligence is hereditary, therefore, academic performance is hereditary. Do you actually believe in that hypothesis? I DON’T! Aside from values, priorities and study habits, there may be a better explanation for poor academic performance. It might not be hereditary but it may be innate.

I work as a tutor after classes. I had one Grade 1 student who’s a consistent honor student since Kinder. One time, she got a 4/10 in a Reading quiz. Her mom was so shocked so she talked to the teacher. The quiz happened to be the first listening quiz of that student. When her mother and I talked to the student, she said she can hardly hear the teacher. The mother was so worried so she brought her to an EENT doctor and found out that her daughter has auditory problems in her right ear. See how auditory problems can affect children and their academic performance?

A study last year by Rajni Dhingra, Sarika Manhas and Nidhi Kohli just gave parents better answers to their student’s poor academic performance. They studied the relationship of perceptual abilities with academic performance of children. They studied 200 4^th to 6^th grader underachiever students in Jammu and Kashmir State in India. They measured poor academic performance through their grades in school as they studied for areas of perceptual abilities- visual , auditory, kinaesthetic and tactile. Their results showed that around one fourth of the participants scored poorly in either visual, auditory or kinaesthetic perception. Only a few number of students scored poorly in the tactile perception. So what does their study show? There is a high correlation between visual, auditory and kinaesthetic perception and academic performance.

The issue of grade consciousness among parents is very common. It’s understandable because everyone would like the best for their children and through grades; children prove that they’re learning in school. However, poor performance in school shouldn’t always be the end basis of everything. Perception plays a big part in a child’s life. Understanding them and their perceptual needs is essential. Who might know, a poor performing child might be an overachiever if his or her needs are met.

Rajni Dhingra, Sarika Manhas and Nidhi Kohli (2010). Relationship of Perceptual Abilities withAcademic Performance of Children. J Soc Sci, 23(2): 143-147 (2010). As retrieved from http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/JSS/JSS-23-0-000-10-Web/JSS-23-2-000-10-Abst-PDF/JSS-23-2-143-10-575-Dhingra-R/JSS-23-2-143-10-575-Dhingra-R-Tt.pdf

I am sure that we have an idea about the sizes of the mountains, the birds, people, and etc. Let us take mountain for example to explain the principle of Size Constancy. Will you say that a mountain is a large thing when viewed at a distance of about 5m away? How about 5km? 5miles? 6 miles? 7miles? Etc. I am sure that most of us would still say that a mountain is a large object no matter at which distance we are looking at it. This is the principle of Size Constancy. At varied distances, the principle states that our perception of the size of the object remains relatively constant, though the size of the image on the retina changes. Granrud (2006) study, Size Constancy in Infants: 4-month olds’ responses to Physical vs Retinal Image Size, aimed to answer this question: Do infants respond primarily to the physical size or the retinal image size?
The results of the experiment reveal that infants respond primarily to the physical size, not to the retinal image size. How was the experiment executed? There were two experiments in the study. The first one aimed to determine whether infants prefer novel-sized or familiar-sized objects. There were two groups for this experiment. For the habituation trials, a circular object having 6cm diameter was viewed by one group at a distance of 30cm; whereas, the other group viewed the circular object with 10 cm diameter at the same distance. For the test trials, both groups viewed the two objects put side by side at a distance of 30cm. This experiment did not test size constancy, but served as a prerequisite for the second experiment that is the main part of this study. From the ten infants (10 girls, 6 boys) in the experiment, ten more were tested but were not included for not sufficing the requirements of the experiment, just like not meeting the habituation criterion. For this experiment, the habituation criterion is the two consecutive trials whose combined fixation time is 50% or less than the combined total fixation time of the first two trials. Infants who were judged by a parent, or the observer who scored them using the videotape, to be too fussy or inattentive were also excluded. After the habituation trials, the first test trial is executed. There were two experimenters for the execution of the procedures. Each of them had specific and unique tasks to perform. The first test trial included the presentation of the novel sized object. Generally, the trial started when the object was looked at by the infant, and ended if the infant looked away. The said novel-sized object was positioned on the left side of the infant for half of the participants in a group, and on the right side for another half, randomly. The whole procedure was videotaped. Test-trial fixation times were scored live, and from the videotape, as well. To avoid bias, the score based on the videotape was used in all analyses. The data gathered from live were used for interobserver reliability in which using Pearson’s r revealed a high degree of reliability.
Using t test, they found out that in the first test trial, the infant significantly preferred the novel-sized object than the familiar-sized. In the second trial however, there was no significant difference found.
The second experiment was similar to the first one, except that the distance of viewing the objects were varied to account for size constancy. For the first group, 6-cm in diameter disc viewed at 18cm; second group, 10-cm at 50cm. This was for the habituation trials. For the test trials, the objects put side by side was viewed by each infant at 30 cm. 8 male and 8 female infants were used in the second experiment.
Just like in the first experiment, there was a significant preference for the novel size of the object, but not in the second trial. The results indicate the size constancy of the 4-month olds by perceiving an object despite the change in distance and the retinal image size. As noted, in the second experiment, the objects were presented at different distance from the habituated trials. Physical size is also more salient than the retinal image size. As for the first experiment, the results suggest preference for the novel size. Having this, experiment 2 suggests new physical size to be more novel than the object that had a new retinal image size as supported by the data after the systematic computation was done, comparing the habituation trials and the test trials of the two groups.
It is just so amazing that psychologists and researchers, as well, are able to study the perception of the 4-month old infants. Research really makes people become innovative and resourceful in executing the experiments to gain data and results that are valid.

Reference:
Granrud C., (2006). Size Constancy in Infants: 4-month olds’ responses to Physical vs Retinal Image Size. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Vol. 32, No. 6, 1398–1404

It’s always interesting to study the behavior of babies, well, for me, at least.:p

Yoon and Johnson did a study on 12-month-olds to test their perception of biological motion. Biological motion is the “motion of a person or other living organism” (Goldstein, 2010). Studies that test the perception of this type of motion use point-light displays in which small lights are attached to a person’s joints and he or she is filmed performing actions in the dark (Goldstein, 2010).

Yoon and Johnson’s wanted to test whether “biological motion perception is developmentally integrated with important social cognitive abilities” (Yoon & Johnson, 2009). In their study, 12-month-olds viewed a video in which the point-light figure paced back and forth three times, then stopped in the middle and faced the viewer. Then, there were four test trials in which the figure turned to look at one of the two point-light targets on the ground (on the bottom-left and bottom-right sides of the screen), twice for each side. To control for low-level directional information, half of the infants were placed in the upright condition and the other half were placed in the inverted condition in which the video was shown upside down. (You can view the video they used here: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~jyoon/Videos.html). The infant’s eye movements were recorded by a camera placed directly in front of the screen. Two blind coders coded the infants’ first looks away from the midline for each test trial and categorized them as either to the right, to the left, directed at the caretaker, or directed at the self. Results of this experiment showed that infants did not recognize the figure in the inverted displays. However, in the upright condition, there was significant evidence that infants were able to systematically follow the gaze of the figure. These findings tell us that “the ability to analyze perceptually biological motion contained in a point-light display is developmentally integrated with other sociocognitive behaviors, specifically, the fundamental social ability to follow the attentional orientation of another human” (Yoon & Johnson, 2009).

I find it interesting that babies as young 12 months old can follow other people’s gazes. I think this sociocognitive ability would have implications on the ways infants learn about the world around them. The interactions they have with other people and the movies or TV show they watch would help their learning in this area. The findings of this study also remind me of how important it is to model good behavior for children, no matter how young they are, because they are influenced by our behaviors. In addition, this study makes wonder if babies can also understand other biological motions and interpret their social meanings. I’m not sure if that is testable but I hope future studies could answer questions related to that.

References:

Red is the color of love. This holds true not only for the popular media, but also for scientific researchers (e.g. Aslam, 2006; Neto, 2002 as cited Eliot, et. al., 2010) across cultures that link the color red to love and passion. And in this season of love, what can be more “in” than red roses, red balloons, red candles and a girl’s ultimate weapon, a red dress. Yup, a red dress is a weapon for girls because a study has shown that it enhances men’s attraction toward women (Eliot and Nesta, 2008 as cited in Eliot, et. al., 2010). So, if a girl would go out on a date with the guy that she likes, wearing red clothes is the best choice. But, did you know that it can have the same enhancing effect on the attraction of females towards males?

A study done by Eliot and his colleagues in 2010 investigated whether the color red affects women’s perception of attractiveness in men. Seven experiments were done to support the hypothesis that viewing red guides women to perceive men as more attractive and more sexually desirable. Furthermore, this effect may be because this color implies high status, a characteristic that women look for in men. The relationship between this color and high status is present across cultures, time and even among other animals such as primates which shows both its social and biological roots.

In each experiment, the participants viewed a picture of a moderately attractive man, based on a pilot test with an independent sample of women, for 5 seconds. Then, they were asked to answer some questions such as rating the man’s attractiveness as well as what they think is the real purpose of the experiment since they were told that the experiment focused on first impression of others.

All experiments supported the red effect, wherein red enhances women’s perception of a man’s attractiveness and sexual desirability. It was observed in both Western and Eastern countries, thus, it is not specific to a particular culture. The red effect was also evident in background color and shirt color presentations where it was said that the latter is more likely to be experienced in real life. Additionally, it was present in different contrast colors including the achromatic colors white and gray, as well as the chromatic colors green and blue. Finally, it was shown that perception status is one mechanism behind this.

However, the red effect was not significant among other positively-valenced traits such as the male’s likeability, extraversion, and agreeableness. Nor it was true in males’ perception of other males. These findings just show that the red effect is a sexual signal and is different from general psychological processes present in both men and women.

Oftentimes, we associate the color red with women. The lady in red gives us an image of an attractive woman who has a perfect S-shaped figure and a beautiful face. But this article shows us that it can also be applied to males. So guys, do you have your red shirts already?

Lastly, this research makes us realize that color not only has aesthetic properties that allow us to appreciate the world around us, but it also has the ability to communicate information about people, even in animals that will guide our thoughts and actions towards others. And usually, we have no conscious awareness that it happens.

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Eliot, A. J., Kayser, D. N., Greitemeyer, T., Lichtenfeld, S., Gramzow, R. H., Maier, M. A., & Liu, H. (2010). Red, rank, and romance in women viewing men. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 139, 3, 399-417. As Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Photos:

“Lady in Red” by TA. D Retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thythy3/galleries/72157622633589243

http://www.redroof.com/reservations/new--featured-locations