In:Progress in Colour Studies: Colour Expression and Cognition
Edited by Carole P. Biggam, Domicele Jonauskaite, Mari Uusküla and Dimitris Mylonas
[Not in series 244] 2026
► pp. 58–73
Comparing the ranking of chromatic basic colour names with corresponding colour preferences in children and adults using psychophysical interval scale
Published online: 20 February 2026
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.244.04gad
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.244.04gad
Abstract
We verify the possible relationships between the colour names and their respective preferences in adults
and children. 300 adults took an online test (mean age = 30 years; SD = 1.02) and 52 children in person (23
aged 6 years; 29 aged 7 years), consisting of ordering 8 colours according to personal preference. Except for the colours
brown and blue, the least and most preferred in both groups, we did not find relationships between the preferences. Also, the
considerable differences between the ranking of colour names and that of the corresponding colour preferences show that
personal preference does not have much impact on the learning of colour names and is probably related to other factors, such
as context and culture.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Material and methods
- 2.1Participants
- 2.2Stimuli
- 2.3Experimental design and procedure
- 2.4Statistical analysis
- 3.Results
- 4.Discussion
- 5.Conclusion
- Declaration of competing interest
- Data availability statement
Acknowledgements References
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