Square bananas, blue horses: The relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation
The present study investigates the role that shape and color play in the representation of animate (i.e. animals) and inanimate manipulable entities (i.e. fruits), and how the importance of these features is modulated by different tasks. Across three experiments participants were shown either images...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2015-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01542/full |
| _version_ | 1819062609675026432 |
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| author | Claudia eScorolli Anna M Borghi |
| author_facet | Claudia eScorolli Anna M Borghi |
| author_sort | Claudia eScorolli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The present study investigates the role that shape and color play in the representation of animate (i.e. animals) and inanimate manipulable entities (i.e. fruits), and how the importance of these features is modulated by different tasks. Across three experiments participants were shown either images of entities (e.g., a sheep or a pineapple) or images of the same entities modified in color (e.g. a blue pineapple) or in shape (e.g. an elongated pineapple). In Experiment 1 we asked participants to categorize the entities as fruit or animal. Results showed that with animals color does not matter, while shape modifications determined a deterioration of the performance - stronger for fruit than for animals. To better understand the findings, in Experiment 2 participants were asked to judge if entities were graspable (manipulation evaluation task). Participants were faster with manipulable entities (fruit) than with animals; moreover alterations in shape affected the response latencies more for animals than for fruit. In Experiment 3 (motion evaluation task), we replicated the disadvantage for shape-altered animals, while with fruits shape and color modifications produced no effect. By contrasting shape- and color- alterations the present findings provide information on shape/color relative weight, suggesting that the action based property of shape is more crucial than color for fruit categorization, while with animals it is critical for both manipulation and motion tasks. This contextual dependency is further revealed by explicit judgments on similarity - between the altered entities and the prototypical ones - provided after the different tasks. These results extend current literature on affordances and biofunctionally embodied understanding, revealing the relative robustness of biofunctional activity compared to intellectual one. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T15:01:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7367d396bac14bb088f054300fa1cb62 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T15:01:30Z |
| publishDate | 2015-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-7367d396bac14bb088f054300fa1cb622022-12-21T18:59:34ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782015-10-01610.3389/fpsyg.2015.01542128139Square bananas, blue horses: The relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representationClaudia eScorolli0Anna M Borghi1University of BolognaUniversity of BolognaThe present study investigates the role that shape and color play in the representation of animate (i.e. animals) and inanimate manipulable entities (i.e. fruits), and how the importance of these features is modulated by different tasks. Across three experiments participants were shown either images of entities (e.g., a sheep or a pineapple) or images of the same entities modified in color (e.g. a blue pineapple) or in shape (e.g. an elongated pineapple). In Experiment 1 we asked participants to categorize the entities as fruit or animal. Results showed that with animals color does not matter, while shape modifications determined a deterioration of the performance - stronger for fruit than for animals. To better understand the findings, in Experiment 2 participants were asked to judge if entities were graspable (manipulation evaluation task). Participants were faster with manipulable entities (fruit) than with animals; moreover alterations in shape affected the response latencies more for animals than for fruit. In Experiment 3 (motion evaluation task), we replicated the disadvantage for shape-altered animals, while with fruits shape and color modifications produced no effect. By contrasting shape- and color- alterations the present findings provide information on shape/color relative weight, suggesting that the action based property of shape is more crucial than color for fruit categorization, while with animals it is critical for both manipulation and motion tasks. This contextual dependency is further revealed by explicit judgments on similarity - between the altered entities and the prototypical ones - provided after the different tasks. These results extend current literature on affordances and biofunctionally embodied understanding, revealing the relative robustness of biofunctional activity compared to intellectual one.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01542/fullColorCategorizationshapebiofunctional Understandingmotion judgmentsmanipulation judgments |
| spellingShingle | Claudia eScorolli Anna M Borghi Square bananas, blue horses: The relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation Frontiers in Psychology Color Categorization shape biofunctional Understanding motion judgments manipulation judgments |
| title | Square bananas, blue horses: The relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation |
| title_full | Square bananas, blue horses: The relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation |
| title_fullStr | Square bananas, blue horses: The relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Square bananas, blue horses: The relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation |
| title_short | Square bananas, blue horses: The relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation |
| title_sort | square bananas blue horses the relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation |
| topic | Color Categorization shape biofunctional Understanding motion judgments manipulation judgments |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01542/full |
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