Order Effect of Warm-Cool Judgment of Colors

Background Color is closely related to emotions and is an important factor in inducing emotion. However, although hue is highly related to color heat, most of the studies on hue and emotion are conducted broadly on each color, such as Red and Blue, and are conducted separately from the study on color heat. It is necessary to discuss in detail whether color can be classified as a unique temperature, that is, an emotion of warm or cool and whether the warm-cool emotion is immutable or variable. Since human experience colors in various orders in an actual environment where they encounter colors, which can change their perception of colors, it is very important to review the order of color presentation. Methods The two experiments had differences in the color stimuli used, and the difference in the result between evaluating the reflective color and evaluating the transmissive color was compared. The reflective color experiment was conducted in which subjects saw reflective color samples and evaluated the degree of warm-cool on a 7-point Likert scale, while the transmissive color experiment was evaluated on a sensory scale (-10 to 10, decimal allowed) by looking at color stimuli on a computer monitor. Additionally, to check the effect of the order in which the colors were presented, the transmissive color experiment was conducted in three sets: forward (Red> Orange> Yellow> Green> Blue> Purple> Red), random (no direction), and reverse (Red> Purple> Blue> Green> Yellow> Orange> Red). Results The results of the reflective color experiment and the transmissive color experiment showed that the peak points of the warm and cool or the conversion points of the warm-cool judgment were very similar, and thus confirmed that the warm-cool judgment of color was not affected by the difference in the stimulus. Comparing the results for the three orders of the transmissive color experiment, the point that the forward order changed from warm to cool and the point that changed from cool to warm appeared earlier based on the hue angle. In the reverse order, contrary to the forward result, the point that changed from warm to cool and the point that changed from cool to warm appeared later. The change of judgement occured earlier based on the order in which color was presented. The results of the random experiment changed the warm-cool judgment of color at a location halfway between the forward-direction and the reverse-direction results. Therefore, there are variable sections in which warm-cool judgment varied depending on the order in which color was presented. Conclusions The warm-cool of color can vary in context, but appropriate warm-cool judgment is determined in each situation, rather than withholding judgment. In color, there are constant and variable sections for the warm-cool judgment.