Color‐emotion associations and color preferences: A case study for residences

This study examines existing beliefs about “color” focusing on color‐emotion associations by discussing how color can be used as a way of communicator to fulfill human needs in residences. Fifty people from various age groups participated in the study. They were asked to match a list of adjectives with the proper color samples from the catalogue of a quite popular color producer firm in Turkey. Results indicate that there is a strong dependency between the choice and use of green at residences. Emotional responses to colors change with value and saturation levels. According to the test results, gender and age are determining factors in the selection of achromatic black. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 144 – 150, 2007     

Analysis of cross‐cultural color emotion

This study investigates the relationship between color perceptual attributes and color emotions, as well as the influence of different cultural backgrounds. Totally 214 color samples were evaluated on 12 emotion variables by subjects from seven different region groups in the psychophysical experiment. By factor analysis, it was found that three factors were sufficient to represent 80 “region‐emotion” variables. For each variable, there is no distinct difference among different region groups. The 12 emotion variables could be divided into four categories, namely, activity index, potency index, definition index, and temperature index. Factor scores were further calculated to study the determinants on each factor. The analysis showed that the three factors were mainly related to chroma, lightness, and hue, respectively. It was concluded that chroma and lightness were the most important factors on color emotion, whereas the influences of hue and cultural background were very limited. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 223–229, 2007     

Color–concept associations: A cross‐occupational and ‐cultural study and comparison

This study used a questionnaire survey to examine color–concept associations in two occupational groups from Hebei Province in China: steel workers (n = 139) and managerial staff (n = 74). The color stereotypes held by these two groups were also compared to those held by three other cultural groups studied elsewhere (Hong Kong Chinese, Yunnan Chinese, and Americans). The participants were presented with 16 concepts and asked to choose one of 10 colors to represent each concept. The chi‐square test results showed that each concept was significantly associated with at least one color. Both the steel workers and the managerial staff primarily associated green with “go” and “safe” and red with “stop” and “danger.” The cross‐group comparisons indicated that the steel workers and the managerial staff produced stronger color associations than those produced by the Yunnan Chinese and the Hong Kong Chinese subjects, but weaker than those produced by the US subjects. Our findings build on existing knowledge of population stereotypes for color–concept associations and provide guidelines for the design of color displays and products for global users. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 39, 630–635, 2014     

Correspondence analysis of color–emotion associations

Emotions are often associated with colors, but what mediates color–emotion associations is not fully understood. This study examined associations between colors and emotions using correspondence analysis. The hypothesis that emotions are associated with colors through the correspondence between the hue circle and the circumplex model of emotion/affect was tested. Participants viewed 40 colors and reported a word that expressed an emotion that they associated with or felt in response to each color. Participants' responses were aggregated into a contingency table of colors and emotion words, and a correspondence analysis was conducted. An eight‐dimensional biplot was obtained. The first and second dimensions were related to hue, and the hue configuration was similar to colors' spectral trajectory in the CIE xy space or the CIELAB a*b* color space. The configuration of emotions was not consistent with the circumplex model of emotion, which rejected the above hypothesis. The associations in dimensions 1 and 2 appeared to be mediated by the perceived temperature of colors and emotions. In dimensions 3–6, dimensions that seemed to reflect secondary associations based on cultural convention or personal experiences (such as white with emotionless and purity and blue with depression) were obtained. These results also demonstrated the usefulness of correspondence analysis for analyzing color–emotion associations due to its ability to reveal the underlying statistical structure of associations.     

Color‐difference formula performance for several datasets of small color differences based on visual uncertainty

Visual uncertainty, while reported, is not used routinely when evaluating color‐difference formula performance in comparison with visual data; rather, data are analyzed assuming no uncertainty; that is, repeating the experiment would result in the identical average results. Previously, Shen and Berns developed three methods to determine whether a color‐difference formula was well‐fitting, under‐fitting, or over‐fitting visual data when visual uncertainty was considered, the method dependent on how the uncertainty was reported and the colorimetric sampling of the color‐difference stimuli. The “nonellipsoid standard error method” was used in the current analyses. Three datasets were evaluated: BFD‐P, Leeds, and Witt. For the BFD‐P data, incorporating visual uncertainty led to the same performance results as the average results, that CIEDE2000 was an improvement over CIE94, which was an improvement over CIELAB. For the Witt data, incorporating visual uncertainty led to the same performance results as the average results, that CIEDE2000 and CIE94 had equivalent performance, both an improvement over CIELAB. However, both formulas under‐fitted the visual results; thus, neither formula was optimal. For the Leeds dataset, the visual uncertainty analysis did not support the improvement of CIEDE2000 over CIE94 that occurred when evaluating the average results. Both formulas well fit the visual data. These analyses also provided insight into the tradeoffs between the number of color‐difference pairs and the number of observations when fitting a local contour of equal perceived color difference: In particular, increasing the number of observations was more important than increasing the number of color‐difference pairs. Finally, average standard error could be used to approximate visual uncertainty defined using STRESS. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2011     

Color–emotion associations in the pharmaceutical industry: Understanding Universal and local themes

The strong shift toward operating in global markets has posed enormous adaptation challenges for product marketing especially with regard to universality and consistency of brand design decisions. The color‐in‐product design decision is also susceptible to this global–local tension. A pharmaceutical film coating formulator supplier to leading local and global pharmaceutical companies was interested in developing a solid validated global color preference database to enable informed brand decision making for its customers. The following study reports results from a global survey that examined the color–brand attribute associations within the global pharmaceutical industry. Data were collected from a multigeography gender and age balanced sample of 2021 subjects, revealing a strikingly powerful color language comprised of universally consistent associations and local contextual patterns that are each critical to global brand decision makers within this industry. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals,Inc. Col Res Appl, 2012;     

Analyses of color emotion for color pairs with independent component analysis and factor analysis

Semantic‐differential data of color emotions for color pairs were collected and examined with factor analysis (FA) and independent component analysis (ICA). The axial orientations of factors cannot be identified by FA, whereas they can be determined by ICA with the intrinsic statistical properties of data such as kurtosis. Three factors or components were extracted by FA and ICA. The factors extracted by FA with the varimax method were consistent with the primary factors: evaluation, activity, and potency. When ICA extracted components with positive kurtosis, the components did not match any of the primary factors. However, the independent components extracted by ICA for negative kurtosis were consistent with the primary factors, and similar to the factors obtained by FA. The results of ICA suggest that the evaluation, activity, and potency factors are independent dimensions in psychological space of color emotions for color pairs. The distributions of the factor scores in FA and the scores of the independent components obtained by ICA for negative kurtosis were not Gaussian, but they had negative kurtosis. These support the use ofICA instead of FA. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 38, 297–308, 2013     

Cognitive performance and emotion are indifferent to ambient color

Folklore has it that ambient color has the power to relax or arouse the observer and enhance performance when executing cognitive tasks. We picked a number of commercially available colors that allegedly have the power to alter cognitive performance and the emotional state, and exposed subjects to them while solving a battery of cognitive tasks. The colors were “Cool Down Pink”, which is said to produce relaxing effects and reduce effort, “Energy Red”, allegedly enhancing performance via increased arousal, “Relaxing Blue”, which is said to enhance attention and concentration, as well as white as a control. In a between‐subjects design, a total of 170 high school students carried out five tasks (number series completion, mental rotation, and memory for word categories, word pairs, and geometrical figures) while exposed to one of the four colors. The emotional state of the subjects was measured before the beginning and at the end of the experiment. The ambient colors did not have the predicted effects, neither on cognitive performance nor on the emotional state of the participants.     

Color vision assessment‐3. An efficient,two‐step,color assessment protocol

Color vision tests and multi‐test protocols in current use often fail to detect small changes in red/green (RG) and yellow/blue (YB) color vision due to poor sensitivity. The tests also have low specificity. In this study, we examine how improved understanding of within‐ and inter‐subject variability in RG and YB color vision and accurate assessment of the differences in color thresholds between the least‐sensitive, age‐matched normal trichromats, and the least‐affected deutans and protans can be used to design an efficient color vision screener (CVS) test. To achieve this objective, we examined two extensive data sets from earlier studies and carried out new experiments to provide better estimates of within‐subject variability in color thresholds and to validate the CVS test. The data sets provide essential information on inter‐subject variability, the effects of normal aging on RG and YB thresholds, and the spread in RG color thresholds in deutan and protan subjects. A statistical model was developed to optimize the parameters of the CVS test and to predict the limits of what can be achieved in color assessment. The efficiency and repeatability of the CVS test were then assessed in 84 subjects. The results match model predictions and reveal close to 100% test efficiency. The test takes between 140 and 160 seconds to complete and has close to 100% repeatability. An efficient, “two‐step” protocol based on the initial use of the CVS test followed by full color assessment in only those who fail the CVS test is also described.     

Color association research on red‐green dichromats in the color ergonomics of user interface interaction

With the development of our modern information society, digital products have become integrated into daily life. Research on the color ergonomics of user interfaces is a pressing issue. However, color‐vision‐deficient individuals (CVDIs), who account for 4.25% of the population, must use interfaces designed for individuals with normal color vision; the demands of CVDIs have not been sufficiently addressed. In this article, we investigate color associations in the color ergonomics of user interface interaction in a manner that aims both to improve interaction efficiency and to meet the psychological needs of CVDIs. First, we study color physiological cognitions in the color interactions of user interfaces for red‐green dichromats (RGDs) to determine the single‐color, two‐color, and three‐color combinations with high discrimination for a later experiment. Second, we explore the psychological–cognition relationships of colors in user‐interface interactions for RGDs. In an experiment involving 10 pairs of association semantemes and corresponding colors, the experimental results show that RGDs have different color cognitions caused by specific visual color expressions and unconscious environmental influences. Therefore, this article argues that RGD design should consider not only the habitual colors of solidified cognitions but also instinctive color associations. Finally, based on the results of previous experiments, we apply association color to the new interface design of computer security software (360 Total Security) for RGDs. Experimental results indicate that the application of color association in our new design can improve both interaction efficiency and CVDI user experience. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 41, 547–563, 2016     

An adaptive approach to create on‐demand color schemes for mapping quantitative geographic data

Creating a satisfying quantitative color scheme is challenging for both novices and experts. Geovisualization often suffers from the misuse and misunderstanding of quantitative color schemes. This article presents an adaptive method to create ready‐to‐use quantitative schemes. A probability‐based method for color selection is presented to quantify the selection of quantitative colors from learning samples of varying popularity. To shape the color transitions, a regression analysis is performed to fit the mathematical curves for the transitions of hue, saturation, and brightness. Finally, the problem of creating satisfying quantitative schemes is translated into a multiconstraint optimization problem. A discretize‐and‐filter method is also presented to solve the optimization problem of globally identifying a suitable scheme in a continuous color space. The proposed method is evaluated with a case study, and the results indicate that the proposed method can derive satisfying schemes. In addition, the proposed method is adaptive to mapping feature, target reader and target device.     

Optimization of color reproduction on CRT‐color monitors

In the present experimental study, we quantify the influence of the brightness and contrast levels of a CRT‐color monitor in the color reproduction of 60 Munsell chips distributed throughout the chromatic diagram. The images were captured by two CCD cameras, and the color differences were evaluated after reproducing the chips on a color monitor (the experiment was performed with 3 different monitors) for 9 combinations of brightness‐contrast levels. We evaluated the color differences with 3 different formulas: CIELAB, CIELUV, and CIE94. The results indicate that the optimal settings of a monitor, to minimize the color differences, is a medium or minimum brightness level in combination with a maximum contrast level. This combination ensures a more faithful color reproduction with respect to the original image. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Col Res Appl, 24, 207–213, 1999     

Similarities and differences between male and female novice designers on color‐concept associations for warnings,action required,and signs and equipment status messages

This research examined the male and female novice designers toward color associations for the concepts used for ‘warnings’, ‘action required’, and ‘signs and equipment status’ through a questionnaire‐based study. A total of 178 Hong Kong Chinese final year undergraduate design students (89 males and 89 females) participated in the study. The test used required the participants to indicate their choice of one of nine colors to associations with each of 38 concepts in a color‐concept table, so that any one color could be associated with any one of the concepts. For both male and female groups of novice designers, chi‐square tests revealed a strong color association for each concept tested in this study (P < .05). The results showed males and females agreed on some color‐concept association stereotypes which were therefore gender neutral. The male and female novice designers had the same color associations and similar levels of stereotype strengths for 21 concepts. The nine strongest and therefore most useful color‐concept association stereotypes for both male and female novice designers were: red‐danger, red‐fire, red‐hot, red‐stop, red‐emergency, red‐error, blue‐cold, blue‐male, and green‐exit. However, the male and female novice designers had different color association stereotypes for the standby (green vs. yellow), emergency exit (green vs. red), and toxic (purple vs. black) concepts, and the strengths of the 14 remaining associations for both groups were not at equivalent levels. Overall, it is anticipated that the findings of this study will act as a useful reference for novice designers and other design practitioners to optimize color coding in the design of ‘warnings’, ‘action required’, and ‘signs and equipment status’ messages.     

Practical color barrier‐free illumination for deuteranopia using LEDs

Here, we propose a color barrier‐free illumination consisting of white, red, and blue LEDs for people with deuteranopia‐type defects in color perception. Color perceptions of 20 volunteers with normal vision and four examinees of deuteranopia were evaluated by both the Ishihara test for color blindness and the Farnsworth Panel D‐15 test under color barrier‐free illumination. The illumination was comparably effective, not only for discriminating between red and green but also for discrimination of the hues on a color chip continuously. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 218–223, 2015     

Color‐naming of M‐cone incremental flashes

To study which hues are associated with brief excitations of foveal middle‐wavelength (M) cones, two highly practiced color‐normal observers (the authors) gave basic color names to 500 and 530 nm increments. The test spots were presented to the fovea and foveola in conditions that included M‐cone isolation. 1° and 3.6 min arc tests were flashed for 200 ms on steady 8.6′, 1°, or 10° monochromatic adapting fields (481, 530, 610, and 630 nm), or on mixtures of these fields, or on a dark field. Tests were flashed at 1, 2, 4, and 8 × thresholds. Field hue had little overall effect. Yellow, green, blue‐green, and blue color‐names were elicited, both for the foveal 1° tests and for 3.6 min tests confined to the S‐cone free foveola. These data add to previous research by showing a contribution of M‐cones to blueness on monochromatic fields, as well as on achromatic fields. Because the 500 and 530 nm tests appear green when presented steadily on these same fields, the M‐cone contribution to blue may well be transitory. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Col Res Appl, 26, 132–140, 2001     

Dictionary‐based estimation of spectra for wide‐gamut color imaging

With the widespread use of commercialized wide‐gamut displays, the demand for wide‐gamut image content is increasing. To acquire wide‐gamut image content using camera systems, color information should be accurately reconstructed from recorded image signals for a wide range of colors. However, it is difficult to obtain color information accurately, especially for saturated colors, if conventional color cameras are used. Spectrum‐based color image reproduction can solve this problem; however, bulky spectral imaging systems are required for this purpose. To acquire spectral images more conveniently, a new spectral imaging scheme has been proposed that uses two types of data: high spatial‐resolution red, green, and blue (RGB) images and low spatial‐resolution spectral data measured from the same scene. Although this method estimates spectral images with high overall accuracy, the error becomes relatively large when multiple different colors, especially those with high saturation, are arranged in a small region. The main reason for this error is that the spectral data are utilized as low‐order spectral statistics of local spectra in this method. To solve this problem, in this study, a nonlinear estimation method based on sparse and redundant dictionaries was used for spectral image estimation—where the dictionary contains a number of spectra—without loss of information from the low spatial‐resolution spectral data. The estimated spectra are represented by a mixture of a few spectra included in the dictionary. Therefore, the respective feature of every spectrum is expected to be preserved in the estimation, and the color saturation is also preserved for any region. Experiments performed using the simulated data showed that the dictionary‐based estimation can be used to obtain saturated colors accurately, even when multiple colors are arranged in a small region. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2013     

Color emotions for multi‐colored images

We investigate the emotional response to colors in ordinary multicolored images. In psychophysical experiments, using both category scaling and interval scaling, observers are asked to judge images using three emotion factors: activity, weight, and heat. The color emotion metric was originally developed for single colors, and later extended to include pairs of colors. The same metric was recently used in image retrieval. The results show that people in general perceive color emotions for multi‐colored images in similar ways, and that observer judgments correlate with the recently proposed method used in image retrieval. The intended usage is in retrieval systems publicly available on the Internet, where both the user and the viewing environment is unknown, which requires novel ways of conducting the psychophysical experiments. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 36, 210–221, 2011;     

Comprehensive color solutions: CAM16, CAT16, and CAM16‐UCS

The CIECAM02 color‐appearance model enjoys popularity in scientific research and industrial applications since it was recommended by the CIE in 2002. However, it has been found that computational failures can occur in certain cases such as during the image processing of cross‐media color reproduction applications. Some proposals have been developed to repair the CIECAM02 model. However, all the proposals developed have the same structure as the original CIECAM02 model and solve the problems concerned at the expense of losing accuracy of predicted visual data compared with the original model. In this article, the structure of the CIECAM02 model is changed and the color and luminance adaptations to the illuminant are completed in the same space rather than in two different spaces, as in the original CIECAM02 model. It has been found that the new model (named CAM16) not only overcomes the previous problems, but also the performance in predicting the visual results is as good as if not better than that of the original CIECAM02 model. Furthermore the new CAM16 model is simpler than the original CIECAM02 model. In addition, if considering only chromatic adaptation, a new transformation, CAT16, is proposed to replace the previous CAT02 transformation. Finally, the new CAM16‐UCS uniform color space is proposed to replace the previous CAM02‐UCS space. A new complete solution for color‐appearance prediction and color‐difference evaluation can now be offered.     

Three‐dimensional color prediction modeling of single‐ and double‐layered woven fabrics

In this research, the three‐dimensional structural and colorimetric modeling of three‐dimensional woven fabrics was conducted for accurate color predictions. One‐hundred forty single‐ and double‐layered woven samples in a wide range of colors were produced. With the consideration of their three‐dimensional structural parameters, three‐dimensional color prediction models, K/S‐, R‐, and L*a*b*‐based models, were developed through the optimization of previous two‐dimensional models which have been reported to be the three most accurate models for single‐layered woven structures. The accuracy of the new three‐dimensional models was evaluated by calculating the color differences ΔL*, ΔC*, Δh°, and ΔE_CMC(2:1) between the measured and the predicted colors of the samples, and then the error values were compared to those of the two‐dimensional models. As a result, there has been an overall improvement in color predictions of all models with a decrease in ΔE_CMC(2:1) from 10.30 to 5.25 units on average after the three‐dimensional modeling.     

Manifestation of depressive tendency in color perception and colors utilized in creating a self‐portrait

There are a large number of studies on color and its influence upon human emotions, but there have been only a few studies on the correlation between color and depressive mental disorders. This study used color preference, association, and creation of self‐portraits to explore the relationship between color and depressive tendency. In this study, 337 freshman design students participated in the experiment, and the center for epidemiologic studies‐depression scale (CES‐D) was used to determine the extent of depression in the subjects. After classifying the subject as “depressive tendency” and “no depressive tendency,” the semantic differential scale and color association methods were used to explore the subjects' emotional, cognitive, and perceptive responses to Munsell 14 colors. In the final portion of the study, the 233 subjects created a colored self‐portrait. The main conclusions found by this study are: (1) when color is used to determine whether subjects have depressive tendency, then the three colors of Yellowish Red, Purple, and Dark Gray are important discriminant variables. (2) those who have depressive tendency (DT) or do not have depressive tendency (NoDT) have similar results in color association, except when viewing dark Gray in association with abstract concepts, wherein DT subjects chose more negative emotional words such as “hopeless,” “fear,” and “depression”; (3) among the 233 self‐portraits, the existence of depressive tendency correlated with the colors used on the face in the self‐portrait. From the above conclusions, this study finds that there is much association between depressive tendency and color perception. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 34, 84–92, 2009.