The IAT shows no evidence for Kandinsky’s colour-shape associations
In the early 20th century, the Bauhaus revolutionised art & design by using simple colours and forms. Wassily Kandinsky was especially interested in the relationship of these two visual attributes and postulated a fundamental correspondence between colour and form: yellow triangle, red squar...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2013-09-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00616/full |
| _version_ | 1818904040565637120 |
|---|---|
| author | Alexis eMakin Sophie eWuerger |
| author_facet | Alexis eMakin Sophie eWuerger |
| author_sort | Alexis eMakin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the early 20th century, the Bauhaus revolutionised art & design by using simple colours and forms. Wassily Kandinsky was especially interested in the relationship of these two visual attributes and postulated a fundamental correspondence between colour and form: yellow triangle, red square and blue circle. Subsequent empirical studies also used preference judgments to test Kandinsky’s original colour-form combinations, usually yielding inconsistent results. We have set out to test the validity of these postulated associations by using the Implicit Association Test. Participants pressed one of two buttons on each trial. On some trials they classified shapes (e.g. circle or triangle). On interleaved trials they classified colours (e.g. blue or yellow). Response times should theoretically be faster when the button mapping follows Kandinsky’s associations: For example, when the left key is used to report blue or circle and the right is used for yellow and triangle, than when the response mapping is the opposite of this (blue or triangle, yellow or circle). Our findings suggest that there is no implicit association between the original colour-form combinations. Of the three combinations we tested, no response time differences were significantly greater than zero, although there was a marginal effect in one experiment. It can be concluded that our IAT does not support all Kandinsky’s postulated colour-form associations, and these are probably not an aesthetic universal. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T21:01:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dcba0d528d524c16b3147949f407094f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T21:01:07Z |
| publishDate | 2013-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-dcba0d528d524c16b3147949f407094f2022-12-21T20:05:49ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782013-09-01410.3389/fpsyg.2013.0061655134The IAT shows no evidence for Kandinsky’s colour-shape associationsAlexis eMakin0Sophie eWuerger1The University of LiverpoolThe University of LiverpoolIn the early 20th century, the Bauhaus revolutionised art & design by using simple colours and forms. Wassily Kandinsky was especially interested in the relationship of these two visual attributes and postulated a fundamental correspondence between colour and form: yellow triangle, red square and blue circle. Subsequent empirical studies also used preference judgments to test Kandinsky’s original colour-form combinations, usually yielding inconsistent results. We have set out to test the validity of these postulated associations by using the Implicit Association Test. Participants pressed one of two buttons on each trial. On some trials they classified shapes (e.g. circle or triangle). On interleaved trials they classified colours (e.g. blue or yellow). Response times should theoretically be faster when the button mapping follows Kandinsky’s associations: For example, when the left key is used to report blue or circle and the right is used for yellow and triangle, than when the response mapping is the opposite of this (blue or triangle, yellow or circle). Our findings suggest that there is no implicit association between the original colour-form combinations. Of the three combinations we tested, no response time differences were significantly greater than zero, although there was a marginal effect in one experiment. It can be concluded that our IAT does not support all Kandinsky’s postulated colour-form associations, and these are probably not an aesthetic universal.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00616/fullAssociationcolourshapesynesthesiaFormImplicit Association Test |
| spellingShingle | Alexis eMakin Sophie eWuerger The IAT shows no evidence for Kandinsky’s colour-shape associations Frontiers in Psychology Association colour shape synesthesia Form Implicit Association Test |
| title | The IAT shows no evidence for Kandinsky’s colour-shape associations |
| title_full | The IAT shows no evidence for Kandinsky’s colour-shape associations |
| title_fullStr | The IAT shows no evidence for Kandinsky’s colour-shape associations |
| title_full_unstemmed | The IAT shows no evidence for Kandinsky’s colour-shape associations |
| title_short | The IAT shows no evidence for Kandinsky’s colour-shape associations |
| title_sort | iat shows no evidence for kandinsky s colour shape associations |
| topic | Association colour shape synesthesia Form Implicit Association Test |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00616/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alexisemakin theiatshowsnoevidenceforkandinskyscolourshapeassociations AT sophieewuerger theiatshowsnoevidenceforkandinskyscolourshapeassociations AT alexisemakin iatshowsnoevidenceforkandinskyscolourshapeassociations AT sophieewuerger iatshowsnoevidenceforkandinskyscolourshapeassociations |