This study is an empirical investigation of the extent to which focal colors and unique hues of red, green, blue, and yellow are related. 40 young adults were asked to pick focal colors and unique hues from 100 color patches printed on white paper. Their saturation was varied in four levels. Analysis showed mean focal colors and mean unique hues were almost identical for the four color terms.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BerlinB., & KayP. (1969) Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution.Berkeley, CA: Univer. of California Press.
2.
BillmeyerF. W.Jr., & BencuyaA. K. (1987) Interrelation of the Natural Color System and the Munsell Color Order System. Color Research and Application, 12, 243–255.
3.
BurnsS. A.ElsnerA. E.PokornyJ., & SmithV. C. (1984) The Abney Effect: Chromaticity coordinates of unique and other constant hues. Vision Research, 24, 479–489.
4.
DeValoisR. L.DeValoisK. K.SwitkesE., & MahonL. (1997) Hue scaling of isoluminant and cone-specific lights. Vision Research, 37, 885–897.
5.
HardA., & SivkL. (1981) NCS-Natural Color System: A Swedish standard for color notation. Color Research and Application, 6, 129–138.
6.
HeringE. (1964) Outlines of a theory of the light sense. (HurvichL. M. & JamesonD., Transl.) Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer. Press.
7.
HurvichL. M., & JamesonD. (1957) An opponent-process theory of color vision. Psychological Review, 6, 384–404.
8.
LarimerJ.KrantzD. H., & CiceroneC. M. (1974) Opponent-process additivity: I. Red/green equilibria. Vision Research, 14, 1127–1140.
9.
McDanielC. K. (1972) Hue perception and hue naming. Unpublished BA thesis, Harvard Univer., Cambridge, MA.
10.
WebsterM. A.MiyaharaE.MalkocG., & RakerV. E. (2000) Variations in normal color vision: II. Unique hues. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 17, 1545–1555.
11.
WebsterM. A.WebsterS. M.BharadwajS.VermaR.JaikumarJ.MadanG., & VaithilinghamE. (2002) Variations in normal color vision: III. Unique hues in Indian and United States observers. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 19, 1951–1962.
12.
WootenB., & MillerD. (1997) The psychophysics of color. In HardinC. L. & MaffiL. (Eds.), Color categories in thought and language.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univer. Press. Pp. 59–88.