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Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2026

10:27
Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color
Published on: February 20, 2014
Does colour preference have a role in colour term acquisition?
Nicola J Pitchford1, Emma E Davis, Gaia Scerif
1School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. nicola.pitchford@nottingham.ac.uk
The British Journal of Developmental Psychology
|December 10, 2009
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Color preference develops with age.
- Color preference may influence how children learn color terms.
- Understanding this link can inform educational strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of color preference in acquiring color terms.
- To examine how attention, memory, and perceptual saliency mediate this relationship.
Main Methods:
- Experimental tasks assessing color preference, discrimination, attention, memory, and new color term learning.
- Utilized computer-simulated colors within the same color category.
- Tested preschool children, primary school children, and adults.
Main Results:
- Color preferences within a category emerged with age.
- Preferred colors were named more accurately than less preferred colors.
- Perceptual saliency, not attention or memory, partially mediated this association.
Conclusions:
- Color preference plays a role in color term acquisition.
- Perceptual saliency is a key factor in linking preference to cognitive processing of color.
- Findings suggest preference influences learning through perceptual salience.

