Color constancy and color term knowledge are positively related during early childhood

Investigating the Conceptual Model of Child-Nature Interaction in Architectural Spaces Using Grounded Theory

OBJECTIVES

To explore factors affecting the quality of child-nature interaction (CNI) based on the views and desires of children themselves and to offer solutions and strategies to provide this kind of spaces.

BACKGROUND

CNI is one of the most important needs of children which causes very profound effects on the psyche of children from different aspects. Space and context that have the ability and characteristics to provide opportunities to establish this interaction have an important role in the cognitive and social development of children.

METHODS

The qualitative data were collected by draw-and-write technique from a study of 119 children aged 2-6 years from five nursery schools located in the city of Hamedan, Iran. Then, the qualitative data were coded based on the grounded theory using three main steps of open, axial, and selective coding and a conceptual model of CNI is provided by the MAXQDA software.

RESULTS

The conceptual model developed from CNI consisted of seven core categories: "intertwining with nature," "objective natural elements," "nature conservation," "colors," "exaggerated plant perceptions," "path perceptions," and "nature-home similarity."

CONCLUSIONS

To reach an optimal CNI within architectural spaces, thus children should have a sense of belonging to nature, be engaged in it, and protect surrounding natural elements. It is of utmost importance to reflect on some points, such as colors, familiar signs, scales, natural elements, the boundary between natural environments and interior spaces, and natural element circulation and placement in designing and planning spaces made specifically for children.

Developmental changes in colour constancy in a naturalistic object selection task

When the illumination falling on a surface change, so does the reflected light. Despite this, adult observers are good at perceiving surfaces as relatively unchanging-an ability termed colour constancy. Very few studies have investigated colour constancy in infants, and even fewer in children. Here we asked whether there is a difference in colour constancy between children and adults; what the developmental trajectory is between six and 11 years; and whether the pattern of constancy across illuminations and reflectances differs between adults and children. To this end, we developed a novel, child-friendly computer-based object selection task. In this, observers saw a dragon's favourite sweet under a neutral illumination and picked the matching sweet from an array of eight seen under a different illumination (blue, yellow, red, or green). This set contained a reflectance match (colour constant; perfect performance) and a tristimulus match (colour inconstant). We ran two experiments, with two-dimensional scenes in one and three-dimensional renderings in the other. Twenty-six adults and 33 children took part in the first experiment; 26 adults and 40 children took part in the second. Children performed better than adults on this task, and their performance decreased with age in both experiments. We found differences across illuminations and sweets, but a similar pattern across both age groups. This unexpected finding might reflect a real decrease in colour constancy from childhood to adulthood, explained by developmental changes in the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underpinning colour constancy, or differences in task strategies between children and adults. HIGHLIGHTS: Six- to 11-year-old children demonstrated better performance than adults on a colour constancy object selection task. Performance decreased with age over childhood. These findings may indicate development of cognitive strategies used to overcome automatic colour constancy mechanisms.

The Development of Color Perception and Cognition

Color is a pervasive feature of our psychological experience, having a role in many aspects of human mind and behavior such as basic vision, scene perception, object recognition, aesthetics, and communication. Understanding how humans encode, perceive, talk about, and use color has been a major interdisciplinary effort. Here, we present the current state of knowledge on how color perception and cognition develop. We cover the development of various aspects of the psychological experience of color, ranging from low-level color vision to perceptual mechanisms such as color constancy to phenomena such as color naming and color preference. We also identify neurodiversity in the development of color perception and cognition and implications for clinical and educational contexts. We discuss the theoretical implications of the research for understanding mature color perception and cognition, for identifying the principles of perceptual and cognitive development, and for fostering a broader debate in the psychological sciences.

Infant color perception: Insight into perceptual development

A remarkable amount of perceptual development occurs in the first year after birth. In this article, we spotlight the case of color perception. We outline how within just 6 months, infants go from very limited detection of color as newborns to a more sophisticated perception of color that enables them to make sense of objects and the world around them. We summarize the evidence that by 6 months, infants can perceive the dimensions of color and categorize it, and have at least rudimentary mechanisms to keep color perceptually constant despite variation in illumination. In addition, infants’ sensitivity to color relates to statistical regularities of color in natural scenes. We illustrate the contribution of these findings to understanding the development of perceptual skills such as discrimination, categorization, and constancy. We also discuss the relevance of the findings for broader questions about perceptual development and identify directions for research.

Colour category constancy and the development of colour naming

In this study, we investigated the processes of coordination, adaptation, and calibration during the development of colour naming and colour constancy, and we tested whether colour term knowledge is related to colour constancy. We measured category membership and prototypes with 163 Munsell chips in preschool children (3- to 4-year-old) under neutral, green, and red illuminations, and compared their results to those of adults. We introduced an index of colour term maturity based on the similarity of children's colour term use to adults, and a colour category constancy index that quantifies the variation in colour categorisation that is specific to illumination changes. Results showed that illumination changes affected children's consistency of colour categorisation, but only to a small extent. However, colour term maturity and illumination-specific effects on consistency strongly varied in this age range. Correlations between colour term maturity and illumination-specific consistency indicated that colour constancy increases with colour term acquisition; but those results depended on the type of illumination changes (between neutral, green, and red). Together, our findings suggest that children progressively fine-tune and recalibrate the meaning of colour terms through processes of coordination and adaptation that are also involved in the calibration of colour constancy.