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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 12, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Color preferences change after experience with liked/disliked colored objects.

Eli D Strauss¹, Karen B Schloss, Stephen E Palmer

¹Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

|April 26, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Color preferences are not fixed and can change based on experiences with colored objects. Affective experiences with liked or disliked objects can shift our liking for corresponding colors.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Perception Science
Affective Science

Background:

Color preferences are thought to be influenced by various factors.
Ecological Valence Theory (EVT) proposes color preferences stem from average affective responses to colored objects.
Understanding how affective experiences shape color perception is key.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if affective experiences with colored objects alter color preferences.
To test the predictions of the Ecological Valence Theory (EVT) regarding color preference formation.
To explore the malleability of color preferences through object-color associations.

Main Methods:

Participants evaluated preferences for colored objects with positive or negative affective associations.
Color patch preferences were measured after exposure to affectively polarized object images.
Experiments involved direct evaluation, delayed recall (24-h), and imagination-based exposure.

Main Results:

Affective experiences with colored objects significantly changed color preferences, but only when participants actively evaluated the objects.
These changes diminished over 24 hours, with persistence correlating with immediate effect magnitude.
Imagining affectively charged objects also induced weaker, but similar, changes in color preferences.

Conclusions:

Color preferences are dynamic and can be shaped by affective experiences with associated objects.
Findings support the role of associative learning and memory priming in modifying color preferences.
The study demonstrates that color perception is not solely innate but learned through interaction and experience.