Colour effects on picture recognition memory

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Colour effects on picture recognition memory
Sandra Nakic Irena Pavela
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Introduction

• Contradictions regarding colour effect on
  recognition memory.
• Some studies concluded that colour has small
  effects on object recognition and identification
  or not at all (Cave, Bost and Cobb, 1996 Anglin
  and Levie, 1985)

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Introduction

• Some studies have shown that colour can improve
  memorizing pictures of natural and urban scenes
  (Gegenfurtner and Rieger, 2000 Wichmann and
  Sharpe, 2002)
• But, how

?
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Introduction

• One possible way to define the level of
  processing is through the manipulation of the
  picture versions
• ? black and white version
• ? coloured version
• in the phase of encoding and in the phase of
  recognizing pictures.

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Legend CC encoded and recognized in coloured
version CM encoded in coloured
and recognized in black and white
MC encoded in black and white and recognized in
coloured MM encoded and
recognized in black and white version
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Introduction

• Another possible way to define the level of
  processing is to examine whether the presence of
  colour itself is enough to facilitate the
  recognition memory

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Aim

• to investigate the colour effect on picture
  recognition memory

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Hypotheses

• If the role of colour in memorizing natural
  scenes is manifested through the sensory
  facilitation, than coloured pictures would be
  recognized easier and faster, despite the version
  in which they were encoded
• If the role of colour in memorizing natural
  scenes is manifested through the cognitive
  facilitation, naturally coloured pictures would
  be recognized easier and faster than unnaturally
  coloured pictures

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If the role of colour in memorizing natural
scenes is manifested through
Sensory facilitation
Cognitive facilitation
naturally coloured pictures would be recognized
easier and faster than unnaturally coloured
pictures
coloured pictures would be recognized easier
and faster than black and white pictures
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Problem

• Investigate possible differences in number of
  correctly recognized pictures, as well as in
  recognition time between nine combinations of
  picture encoding and recognizing
• encoded and recognized in black and white ? BW -
  BW
• 
  ? NC - UC
• 
  ? UC - NC
• 
  ? NC - NC
• 5.
  ? UC -BW
• 6.
  ? BW - UC
• 7.
  ? UC - UC
• 8.
  ? BW - NC
• 9.
  ? NC - BW

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Method

• Picture standardization to ensure the
  psychological similarity between pictures
• Picture selection ? correctly recognized in more
  than 70 of all cases
• 30 selected pictures ? 3 versions

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Method

• Each picture version was in the encoding
  phase as well as in the recognition phase which
  resulted in 9 combinations of picture encoding
  and recognizing

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Method

• 60 subjects devided into 3 groups
• each group went through 3 different combinations
  (Latin square design)
• exposition time 2 s
• interval of retention 15 min
• Recognition phase 30 encoded pictures and 30
  distractor pictures
• keys YES/NO ? accuracy recognition time

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Results
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FIGURE 1. Accuracy of picture recognition
regarding version of encoding and recognition
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FIGURE 2. Recognition time for each combination
of picture encoding and recognizingF(6,
171)121,76 plt0,01
BW
BW
BW
UnC
UnC
UnC
NC
NC
NC
BW - blackwhite UnC - unnaturally coloured NC
- naturally coloured
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CONCLUSIONS

• Colour did improve recognition memory through
  sensory facilitation
• Recognition time is shorter when picture is
  recognized in naturally coloured version
• These results also suggest the possibility of
  cognitive facilitation

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• THANK YOU!

Department of Psychology, Universitiy of Zadar