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Categorical effects in children's colour search: a cross-linguistic comparison

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 17:37 authored by Christine A Daoutis, Anna FranklinAnna Franklin, Amy Riddett, Alexandra Clifford, Ian R L Davies
In adults, visual search for a colour target is facilitated if the target and distractors fall in different colour categories (e.g. Daoutis, Pilling, & Davies, in press). The present study explored category effects in children’s colour search. The relationship between linguistic colour categories and perceptual categories was addressed by comparing native speakers of languages differing in the number of colour terms. Experiment 1 compared English and Kwanyama (Namibian) children aged 4 to 7 years on a visual search task, using target-distractor pairs (blue-green, blue-purple, red-pink) for which the Kwanyama did not have distinct names. The presence of a category advantage in the English, but not in the Kwanyama, suggested that linguistic boundaries may affect search performance. Experiment 2 examined visual search performance in the green-yellow and the blue-green region, in English and Himba (Namibian) 6-year-olds. The number of distractors was varied to assess search ef?ciency. Cross-category search was more ef?cient than within-category search in the English group, but this advantage was absent in the Himba. Increasing the number of distractors affected search speed in the English group, but not in the Himba. Overall, these ?ndings suggest cross-language differences in categorical effects on colour search, but also in the way the children performed the search. The nature of the category effect in search is discussed with respect to these ?ndings.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

British Journal of Developmental Psychology

ISSN

0261-510X

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

2

Volume

24

Page range

373-400

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2014-06-18

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