The Relationship between Color Naming and Color Recognition Abilities of Preschoolers

Author(s): Meredith M. Kimball and Philip S. Dale

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Child Development, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Sep., 1972), pp. 972-980
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1127647 .
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COLOR NAMING
AND COLOR RECOGNITION ABILITIES
OF PRESCHOOLERS
MEREDITH M. KIMBALL
University
of British Columbia
PHILIP S. DALE
University
of
Washington
KIMBALL,
MEREDITH
M.,
and
DALE,
PHILIP S. The
Relationship
between
Color
Naming
and Color
Recognition
Abilities of Preschoolers.
CHILD
DE-
VELOPMENT, 1972, 43,
972-980. The
effect of language
on
memory
was
tested
using
33
4-year-old
children. Their
ability
to name and remember
colors was measured.
Recognition accuracy
was
significantly
related to the
children's
ability
to name colors.
However,
chronological age,
mental
age,
and
IQ
were
significant confounding
factors
in the
relationship
between
naming ability
and/or
use and
recognition accuracy.
There was a
significant
tendency
on the
part of
all the children to use their own color name cate-
gories
to inhibit
extracategorical responses
when
making recognition
choices.
The results are discussed in
relationship
to
production
and mediation
defi-
ciency,
and in terms
of
the
Whorfian hypothesis.
The Whorfian
hypothesis (1957)
argues
that
one's
experience
of the
world is determined
by
the
language
he
speaks.
Evidence for the
Whorfian
hypothesis
has not been
conclusive,
and the
hypothesis
has been
subjected
to several
interpretations.
McNiell
(1965)
has described three
possible
versions of the
Whorfian
hypothesis.
The
strong
version states that the cate-
This
study
was
completed
while both authors were at the
University
of
Michigan.
The authors wish to
express appreciation
to the staff of the
University
Nursery
School and
Perry Nursery
School for their
cooperation.
Author Kimball's
address:
Department
of
Psychology, University
of British
Columbia,
Vancouver
8,
British
Columbia,
Canada.
[Child Development, 1972, 43, 972-980. @ 1972
by
the
Society
for Research in Child
Develop-
ment,
Inc. All
rights reserved.]
MEREDITH M. KIMBALL AND PHILIP S. DALE
gories
and structures of
language
determine
thought
and that this causal
relationship
is not
dependent upon
the
production
of
language by
the in-
dividual. The weak version of the Whorfian
hypothesis
differs from the
strong
in both
point
of influence and in the role of
language production.
Language, according
to the weak
version,
can influence
perception,
but
only
when the relevant
linguistic
labels are
actually produced.
The weakest
version holds
that,
if information is to be stored over
time,
it is stored via a
linguistic
code and therefore bears the
imprint
of the
linguistic
code. Accord-
ing
to the three
versions,
language
touches
cognition
at one of three
points
-thought, perception,
or
memory.
Most of the evidence for the
strong
version has been anecdotal
(Lenne-
berg
1953).
Evidence for the weak version has been
ambiguous
(Carroll
&
Casagrande
1958;
Lenneberg
1953;
Maclay
1958).
Evidence for the weakest
version has been somewhat clearer. Brown and
Lenneberg
(1954)
found
that
codability
of a color was related to
recognition accuracy
for adults.
Using
communication
accuracy
as a measure of color
nameability,
Lantz and
Streffle
(1964)
found a
positive relationship
between communication accu-
racy
and
recognition accuracy
with adult
subjects. Using 6-year-old
deaf and
hearing
children,
Lantz and
Lenneberg
(1966)
found that the deaf chil-
dren did
significantly
worse on a
recognition
task,
again indicating
the
importance
of
language
for the
coding
of information over time.
The
present study
was
designed
as a further test of the weakest form
of the Whorfian
hypothesis.
If a
language system
is
important
for
memory,
there must be some
point
in
development
when the lack of such a
system
and its effects can be demonstrated in normal children. It was de-
cided to look at the
color-naming system
in
young
children
(4-year-olds)
to see if a
relationship
held between the
ability
to name colors
and/or
the
tendency
to use available color
names,
and
recognition accuracy.
Since in-
telligence,
mental
age,
and/or
chronological age
are also often
relate&to
memory capacity
and to
language ability
in
young
children,
these factors
were also examined in
relationship
to
naming
and
recognition ability.
METHOD
Subjects.-Thirty-three
middle-class children
(11
boys
and 22
girls),
between the
ages
of 3-5 and 5-2 from two different
nursery
schools served as
subjects.
Since all of the children could not
complete
the
task,
it was neces-
sary
to test more than 33 children in order to obtain
complete
data from 33.
All the children tested
completed
the first session
(naming
task)
but several
found the second session
(recognition task)
too difficult and were unable or
unwilling
to finish it.
Stimulus
materials.-Every
sixth color
chip
of the Farnsworth-Munsell
color series
(i.e.,
numbers
1, 7, 13, 19,
. . .
, 79)
was chosen to construct a
stimulus set of 14 colors. Different colors (pink through purple) are repre-
973
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
sented in the Farnsworth-Munsell
series,
and the series is circular so that
end
points
are not available to be used as anchors. The colors are
equal
in
brightness
and saturation but different in hue. There are two
disadvantages
involved in
using
these colors with
young
Ss. The colors are
very
unsaturated
(there
is not a
good example
of
red,
for
instance)
and small
(I
inch in di-
ameter).
Both of these factors tend to make the colors
uninteresting
to small
children. The
chips
were covered with a clear
plastic
material and mounted
in black
plastic caps.
One
complete
set of the
chips
was
presented
in a
circular
array
on a white wooden
board,
but the
chips
not fastened to the
board. A second set was used for stimulus
presentation.
The Farnsworth-
Munsell colors were used because
they
have been shown to be
perceptually
equidistant
for adults
(Dale 1969;
Farnsworth
1943),
and thus the
mag-
nitude of error can be scored.
Procedure.-Each
S was seen
individually
in either two or three ses-
sions. The first two sessions were at least 2 or 3
days apart;
the second and
third were either done at the same time or a few
days apart depending
on
the attention
span
of the S.
In the first session the S was seated at a table and shown all 14 colors
on the white board. Then the colors were removed and the child was shown
one color at a time and
asked,
"Does this color have a name? What do
you
call this color?" The series of 14 colors was
presented
twice,
both times in
random order. Each name the S
gave
was recorded
verbatim,
including
modifiers such as
light,
dark,
-ish
(as
in
greenish),
etc.
In the second session
(2-7
days
later)
the S was
required
to remember
colors over time and to find a color
just
like the one he had seen
previously.
In order to be certain that the S understood
"just
like,"
two
matching
trials
were
given
first. Two colors were chosen
randomly
for these trials. These
two trials were corrected. The S was not used if he matched
incorrectly
on
both trials. The S was next introduced to a
recognition
task
through
two
practice recognition
trials. First the
display
of 14 colors was covered and
it was
explained
that this was
part
of the
game.
Then the child was shown
a color for 5 seconds and instructed to look at it
carefully.
The E then hid
the color in her hand for 5
seconds,
after which the cover was removed and
the S instructed to find a color
just
like the one in the E's hand. Each of
the 14 colors was
presented
once
during
the
regular recognition
trials,
and
the order of
presentation
was random. If the S
spontaneously
named the
colors
during
this
session,
the names he used were recorded verbatim. None
of the
recognition
trials was corrected.
If recent individual mental
age
measures
(Stanford-Binet)
were avail-
able for the Ss in the school
records,
the third session was omitted. The Ss
for whom this information was not available were
given
the
Peabody
Pic-
ture
Vocabulary
Test. This test was administered after the
recognition
trials
if the S was still
attentive;
if
not,
it was
given
a few
days
later.
974
MEREDITH M. KIMBALL AND PHILIP S. DALE
RESULTS
Naming ability
and
recognition accuracy.-Each recognition response
was scored in terms of both direction and distance of error from the correct
response.
In
computing average
error
scores,
the mean absolute error was
not used because the distribution of errors was skewed
by
a few
high
mean
absolute error scores. This in turn led to
unequal
variances in
subgroups.
This was considered a
problem
since the division of Ss into various sub-
groups
had to be made on the basis of the Ss' test
behavior,
which in all
cases led to an
unequal
number of Ss in the
groups being compared.
In order
to remove the skewed nature of this
distribution,
the error score for each
S was
computed
as the
logarithm
of the variance of the
algebraic
errors
(1
+
loglo
[variance
of the
algebraic
errors]).
All error scores are
reported
in
log
units.
In order to test the
hypothesis
that children who name colors are able
to
recognize
them more
accurately,
it was
necessary
to divide the Ss into a
group
of namers
(N)
and a
group
of nonnamers
(NN).
Namers were defined
as Ss who used four or more color names
consistently
in both of the
prompted
naming
trials
(one
naming
trial consisted of
naming
each of the 14 colors
once).
Consistent color
naming
was
operationally
defined as
using
each color
name for
only
one continuous
segment
of the color
array.
If a child used
"blue" for colors
4,
5,
6,
and 7 and
"green"
for
8, 9,
and
10, he
named
consistently,
while if he used "blue" to label colors
4, 5,
7,
and 8 and
"green"
for colors
6, 9,
and
10, he
named
inconsistently.
There were 19 Ss
(five
boys
and 14
girls)
in the N
group
and 14
(six
boys
and
eight girls)
in the NN
group.
Namers used an
average
of 5.6 different color names with
a
range
of four to nine different names used. Nonnamers used an
average
of
4.4 different color names with a
range
of one to nine different names used.
Of the 14 NN
Ss,
10 failed to name
consistently,
two used fewer than four
color
names,
and 2 both used fewer than four color names and failed to
name
consistently.
The
average
error for the N
group
was
1.15,
and the
average
error for the NN
group
was 1.70. Another
question
of interest was
the
relationship
between
spontaneous naming
of the colors
during
the
recog-
nition trials
(the
S was not asked to name the colors at this
time)
and
recognition accuracy.
The
average
error of the 25
(10
boys
and 15
girls)
spontaneous
namers
(S)
was
1.34,
and the
average
error of the
eight
(one
boy
and seven
girls) nonspontaneous
namers
(NS)
was 1.53.
Not all children who
spontaneously
named met the
naming
criterion
and not all children who met the
naming
criterion,
spontaneously
named.
Separating
the Ss on the two dimensions
gives
four
groups:
(1)
spontaneous
namers
(S,N),
N
=
16
(five
boys
and 11
girls);
(2)
spontaneous,
non-
namers (S,NN), N =
9 (five boys and four girls); (3) nonspontaneous,
namers
(NS,N) ,
N = 3
(no boys
and three
girls);
and
(4) nonspontaneous,
975
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
TABLE 1
AVERAGE
ERROR,
CHRONOLOGICAL
AGE,
MENTAL AGE,
AND INTELLIGENCE
QUOTIENT FOR
SUBJECTS IN
DIFFERENT NAMING
GROUPS
S,
N
S,
NN
NS,
N
NS, NN
Average
error ......... 1.19 1.55 0.95 1.84
(16)a (9) (3) (5)
Average
CA
(in mos.)
. 56.1 55.3 54.7 52.0
(16) (9) (3) (5)
Average
MA
(in mos.)
. 71.1 63.5 78.3 69.7
(14) (8) (3) (3)
Average IQ
........... 128 116 114 134
(14) (8) (3) (3)
a
Number of
subjects
in each cell.
nonnamers
(NS,NN),
N = 5
(one
boy
and four
girls).
The
recognition
accuracy
data for the four
groups
are
presented
in table 1. To test for the
effect of
naming ability
and
spontaneous naming,
a
two-way analysis
of
variance was
performed (naming x spontaneous naming).
The
naming
ef-
fect was
significant, F(1,29)
=
18.55,
p
<
.01,
as
predicted.
However,
the
spontaneous naming
effect, F(1,29)
=
2.0,
p
>
.05,
and the
interaction,
F(1,29)
=
3.45, p
>
.05,
were not
significant.
In
considering
the influence of verbal labels on
memory,
it was
possible
to look in more detail at this
relationship.
In order to do
this,
average
cate-
gory
size
(inverse
of the number of different color names
used)
for each S
was
compared
with his
average
error. If color
naming
influences
recognition,
it would be
predicted
that the smaller the
average category
size,
the smaller
the
average
error. This
prediction
was
supported
since the correlation be-
tween error and
average category
size for the 19 N children was
.57,
p
< .01.
The
effects of
age
and
intelligence.-In
addition to the
tendency
and/or
ability
to use color
labels,
other factors influence
memory span
in
very young
children,
and hence
potentially
influence
recognition accuracy.
Three of the
most
commonly acknowledged
factors are
chronological age
(CA),
mental
age
(MA),
and
intelligence (IQ).
In order to
study
CA, MA,
and
IQ
as
possible confounding
factors,
a
two-way analysis
of covariance
(naming
X
spontaneous naming)
was used. Neither the main effects nor the interactions
were
significant
for
any
of the three factors. Thus
CA, MA,
and
IQ
had
a
significant confounding
effect on the
relationship
between
naming ability
and
error.
Pattern
of
recognition responses.-The finding
that namers are
signifi-
cantly
more accurate on a
recognition
task than nonnamers
gives
some in-
formation about the effect of verbal labels on a
memory
task,
that
is,
having
consistent color names aids the
memory
and increases
recognition accuracy.
However,
a finer measure
(inhibition
of
extracategorical responses
or
d)
of
the effect of verbal labels on this
memory
task is
possible
(Dale 1969).
This
976
MEREDITH M. KIMBALL AND PHILIP S. DALE
measure consists of the number of
recognition responses
which come
from
the same
naming
class as the
recognition
stimulus color. Even if a child's
recognition responses
are not influenced
by
his verbal
labels,
a certain num-
ber of such
responses
can be
expected
since the most
frequent
errors involve
colors close to the stimulus color and these same colors are also most
likely
to have the same name as the stimulus color. It is
possible
to
compute,
for
each set of names
given by
each
child,
the
expected
number of such re-
sponses, given
that verbal labels have no
part
in
determining recognition
re-
sponses.
The
expected
value for each set of 14 names
given by
each child
represents
the number of
responses
that are to be
expected
from the same
naming
class as the stimulus if the child's set of color names does not influ-
ence his
recognition responses. Subtracting
the
expected
number of such
responses
from the observed number
yields
a d score for each set of names
given by
each child. If verbal labels do not influence
recognition responses,
then the d scores
should,
with
equal frequency,
be
positive
or
negative.
How-
ever,
if there is a direct influence of verbal
labels,
then a
disproportionate
number of d scores should be
positive.
The d measures were derived in the
same
way
for both consistent and inconsistent namers.
Each S named the set of 14 colors at least twice
(and
three times if he
named
spontaneously during
the
recognition
task),
receiving
either two or
three d scores. The two d scores from the
prompted naming
trials were aver-
aged,
so that each S
had
one
d'
score
(d'
=
[d1
+
dj]/2)
for the two
prompted naming
trials.
Spontaneous
namers
had
a third score
(d3)
based
on the names used
during
the
recognition
session.
If the overall
tendency
to inhibit
extracategorical recognition responses
existed,
a
significant
number of the d scores would be
positive. Using
a
sign
test,
this
hypothesis
was confirmed whether for
dI
(z
=
3.3,
p
<
.01), d2
(z
=
2.7,
p
<
.01),
d3
(z
=
4.94,
p
<
.01),
or
d'
(z
=
3.6,
p
<
.01).
When the
d'
scores of the NN
group
were
compared
with those of the
N
group, by
a
Mann-Whitney
U
test,
the difference was
significant
at the
.05 level
(two-tailed)
in the
opposite
direction from that
expected,
that
is,
the NN
group
had a
larger
d'
measure than the N
group.
However,
the same
comparison
was not
significant
when the S
group
was
compared
to the NS
group (Mann-Whitney, two-tailed).
It would be
expected
for the S
group
that their
naming
behavior would
affect their
recognition responses
more,
the closer the
naming
was in time to
the actual
recognition
choices. Thus it was
expected
that their
d3
scores
would be even
larger
(further
from chance than their
d'
scores).
This
hypoth-
esis was
confirmed
(p
<
.01)
by using
either
a
sign
test or a Wilcoxen test
for two matched
samples.
In
conclusion,
forming categories
of color names did seem to influence
recognition
behavior;
and the closer in time the formation of the color cate-
gory, the greater was the tendency for the names to affect the recognition
responses through
inhibition of
extracategorical responses.
977
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
DISCUSSION
The
Whorfian hypotheses.-The finding
that children who had four
or
more consistent color names available remembered colors more
accurately
supported
the weakest form of the
Whorfian
hypothesis
and was consistent
with Lantz and
Lenneberg's
(1966)
finding
that
6-year-old hearing
children
remembered colors
significantly
better than
6-year-old
deaf children who had
no
language system.
A closer look at the
relationship
between
naming
and
recognition accuracy
was
given by
the correlation between
average category
size
(inverse
of the number of different color names
used)
and error for the
children who met the minimum
naming
criterion. This
relationship
was
sig-
nificant
(r
=
.57),
adding support
to the
hypothesis
of the
relationship
between verbal
labeling.
and
memory.
Production and mediational
deficiency.-The relationship
in
both
method and results between this research and the research of
Flavell, Beach,
and
Chinsky
(1966)
and
Keeney,
Cannizzo,
and Flavell
(1967)
on
produc-
tion
deficiency
warrants some comment. Flavell has
argued
that the media-
tional
deficiency hypothesis
(Reese 1962)
should
actually
be viewed as two
separate hypotheses.
The first one
(mediational
deficiency)
is that the child
produces
the verbal
label,
but the verbalizations
fail,
for some
reason,
to me-
diate. The second one
(production deficiency)
states that the child tends not
to
produce
the
proper
verbal labels when the situation calls for
them,
al-
though
he "knows" the words
involved,
that
is,
he can
produce
and use them
in some situations.
In
comparing
the Flavell and
Keeney
studies with this
one,
the first
problem
is whether the
spontaneous
namers in the
present study
were re-
hearsing
in the same sense as
subjects
rehearsed in the Flavell and
Keeney
studies. The
spontaneous naming
observed here and the rehearsal described
in the Flavell studies were different in three
important ways:
(1)
the sub-
jects
who
spontaneously
named in the
present study
did so
once, aloud,
and
did not
repeat
the color name or even
appear
to
whisper
it
repeatedly during
the
delay period,
while the
subjects
who rehearsed in the Flavell and
Keeney
studies most often did so in a
whisper
or
very
low voice and
repeated
the
label more than
once;
and
(2)
25 of the 33
subjects (4-year-olds) spon-
taneously
named the
colors,
while
only
two of the 20
kindergarten
children
in the Flavell et al.
(1966)
study
rehearsed;
and
(3)
spontaneous naming
was not related to
recognition accuracy,
while Flavell et al.
(1966)
found
that
spontaneous
namers had
significantly
better recall.
One
possible explanation
of the above differences is that
spontaneous
naming
was unrelated to rehearsal but occurred because
giving
names aloud
had been the
proper response
a few
days
before in
exactly
the same situation.
Thus the
prompted naming
facilitated the
spontaneous naming,
but
spon-
taneous
naming
was not related in
any simple way
to
any
rehearsal
(covert
978
MEREDITH M. KIMBALL AND PHILIP S. DALE
or
overt)
that did occur. This
explanation
accounts for the
discrepancies
noted above. While it also accounts for the
finding
that S
subjects
were not
significantly
more
accurate,
it does not account for the
finding
that the
S
subjects' recognition responses
were more
closely
related
to,
the
spontaneously
given
labels than to the
prompted
labels
given
several
days
before
(d3
> d',
p
<
.01).
Dale
(1969),
using
a
matching
as well as a
recognition
task,
came to
the conclusion that both
spontaneous
namers and
nonspontaneous
namers
produced
the
mediator,
but the NS
group
failed to rehearse the verbal label
over the
delay period
in the
recognition
task. He found that all
subjects
showed a
significantly greater
than chance d measure in a
matching
task
(i.e.,
produced
and used a color label as a
mediator),
but in the
recognition
task,
only
the S
group
had d scores
significantly greater
than chance. Thus
in the
recognition
task,
while both S and NS
subjects produced
the
potential
mediator,
the NS
group
failed to rehearse it and thus
forgot
it over the
delay
period.
This
argument,
however,
depends upon
the absence of an inhibition
of
extracategorical recognition responses
in the NS
group,
and this absence
was not found in the
present study.
Indeed,
both the S and NS
groups
showed a
significant tendency
to inhibit
extracategorical responses
and the
difference in the
d'
measure between the two
groups
was not
significant.
Thus,
in this
study,
both S and NS
subjects
behaved on the
recognition
task
as if the mediator were
being
used in the selection of the color.
The results of the
present study suggest
that
availability
of a
consistent
set of color labels is related more
closely
to
recognition accuracy
than is the
spontaneous production
of labels in a color
recognition
task. Thus if a child
does not have a consistent set of color
names,
it does him no
good
to
produce
the color labels he does have in a
recognition
task.
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