The Manchester Colour Wheel: enhancing its utility

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Gastroenterology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Manchester Colour Wheel was developed to explore color perception in gastroenterology.
• Initial findings indicated color shade connotations were more significant than the color itself.
• Response rates for mood-color association tasks differed between individuals with and without mood disorders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if altering question wording could standardize mood-color association response rates in healthy volunteers.
• To determine if a revised question format could yield uniform responses irrespective of mood status.

Main Methods:

• Two distinct question phrasings were used to assess mood-color choice in healthy volunteers.
• The study involved two groups of healthy participants (n=105 and n=203).
• Response rates and false positive responses were compared between the two question formats.

Main Results:

• The initial question yielded a 39% response rate.
• A revised question achieved a 95% response rate in healthy volunteers.
• The higher response rate was not linked to an increase in false positive answers.

Conclusions:

• The wording of mood-related questions can be optimized to achieve consistent response rates.
• This adjustment can make mood-color association tasks more reliable across diverse participant groups.
• Standardized response rates are achievable irrespective of participants' underlying mood status.