title: Cross-cultural variation of memory colors of familiar objects.
abstract: The effect of cross-regional or cross-cultural differences on color appearance ratings and memory colors of familiar objects was investigated in seven different countries/regions - Belgium, Hungary, Brazil, Colombia, Taiwan, China and Iran. In each region the familiar objects were presented on a calibrated monitor in over 100 different colors to a test panel of observers that were asked to rate the similarity of the presented object color with respect to what they thought the object looks like in reality (memory color). For each object and region the mean observer ratings were modeled by a bivariate Gaussian function. A statistical analysis showed significant (p < 0.001) differences between the region average observers and the global average observer obtained by pooling the data from all regions. However, the effect size of geographical region or culture was found to be small. In fact, the differences between the region average observers and the global average observer were found to of the same magnitude or smaller than the typical within region inter-observer variability. Thus, although statistical differences in color appearance ratings and memory between regions were found, regional impact is not likely to be of practical importance.
authors.forename: Kevin A G
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Smet
authors.forename: Yandan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Balázs V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: Zoltan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Németh
authors.forename: Gloria L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Duque-Chica
authors.forename: Jesús M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Quintero
authors.forename: Hung-Shing
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ronnier M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Safi
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hanselaer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D055253:Color Vision / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015588:Observer Variation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis