Journal
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 21, Issue 9, Pages 1208-1214Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0956797610379861
Keywords
visual attention; visual search; color perception; visual perception; basic color terms
Categories
Funding
- NEI NIH HHS [R21 EY018321, R01 EY017001-04, R01-EY017001, R01 EY017001, R21-EY018321] Funding Source: Medline
- NIMH NIH HHS [R01 MH056020, R01-MH56020] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In this article, we report that in visual search, desaturated reddish targets are much easier to find than other desaturated targets, even when perceptual differences between targets and distractors are carefully equated. Observers searched for desaturated targets among mixtures of white and saturated distractors. Reaction times were hundreds of milliseconds faster for the most effective (reddish) targets than for the least effective (purplish) targets. The advantage for desaturated reds did not reflect an advantage for the lexical category pink, because reaction times did not follow named color categories. Many pink stimuli were not found quickly, and many quickly found stimuli were not labeled pink. Other possible explanations (e.g., linear-separability effects) also failed. Instead, we propose that guidance of visual search for desaturated colors is based on a combination of low-level color-opponent signals that is different from the combinations that produce perceived color. We speculate that this guidance might reflect a specialization for human skin.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available