Infants' recognition of objects using canonical color.
We explored infants' ability to recognize the canonical colors of daily objects, including two color-specific objects (human face and fruit) and a non-color-specific object (flower), by using a preferential looking technique. A total of 58 infants between 5 and 8 months of age were tested with a stimulus composed of two color pictures of an object placed side by side: a correctly colored picture (e.g., red strawberry) and an inappropriately colored picture (e.g., green-blue strawberry). The results showed that, overall, the 6- to 8-month-olds showed preference for the correctly colored pictures for color-specific objects, whereas they did not show preference for the correctly colored pictures for the non-color-specific object. The 5-month-olds showed no significant preference for the correctly colored pictures for all object conditions. These findings imply that the recognition of canonical color for objects emerges at 6 months of age.
Kimura
Atsushi
A
Sensory and Cognitive Food Science Laboratory, National Food Research Institute, Ibaraki 305-8642, Japan.
Wada
Yuji
Y
Yang
Jiale
J
Otsuka
Yumiko
Y
Dan
Ippeita
I
Masuda
Tomohiro
T
Kanazawa
So
S
Yamaguchi
Masami K
MK
D003118:Color Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology