The development of conceptual colour categories in pre-school children: Influence of perceptual categorization

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of perceptual colour categorization on the development of conceptual colour space in 43 pre-school children as a function of language-age. Knowledge of the 11 basic colour terms identified by Berlin and Kay (1969) was assessed in comprehension and naming tasks. Children's ability to comprehend basic colour terms was assessed in a spoken word-to-colour matching task in which a target colour was presented with two distracters from either distant or adjacent perceptual colour categories. Children's ability to name basic colour sensations was measured in an explicit naming task. Results showed that children's comprehension of basic colour terms was influenced by the perceptual relationship between the target and distracter colours. Most importantly, at a language-age of 3 years and above, naming errors were more likely to be made to adjacent, rather than distant, perceptual colour categories. These results are consistent with the prediction that categorical colour perception influences the underlying structure of developing conceptual colour space during the period in which children acquire basic colour terms.