Salience of primary and secondary colours in infancy

Abstract

Primary colour terms (black, white, red, green, yellow, and blue) are more fundamental in colour language than secondary colour terms (pink, purple, orange, brown, and grey). Here, we assess whether this distinction exists in the absence of language, by investigating whether primary colours attract and sustain preverbal infants' attention more than secondary colours. A paired comparison technique paired eight focal colours from the chromatic primary and secondary categories against each other, and infant looking was recorded. When collapsed across individual colours, primary colours were looked at longer than secondary colours. However, a further analysis that considered each colour separately revealed only partial support for the distinction between primary and secondary colours. Rather, findings suggest perceptual biases towards focal red and against focal pink and brown. These early perceptual biases to certain colours in infancy may interact with cultural factors during development to shape toddler colour preference and colour term acquisition.