Elsevier

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 10, Issue 2, April–June 1987, Pages 143-150
Infant Behavior and Development

An evaluation of color preference in early infancy

https://doi.org/10.1016/0163-6383(87)90029-4Get rights and content

Abstract

This study examined the development of color preference in 20 newborns, 1-, and 3-month-olds, by recording their fixation time to blue, green, yellow, red, and gray squares at 2 luminances, 3 and 30 cd/m2. Adults' ratings of the same stimuli were also obtained. The results showed that only newborns showed a brightness preference, looking longer at stimuli of lower luminance, but all groups preferred the chromatic over the achromatic stimuli. Adults and 3-months-olds showed a significant preference among the chromatic stimuli: 3-month-olds preferred the long-wavelength (red and yellow) to the short-wavelength (blue and green) stimuli, and adults demonstrated the opposite pattern of preference. These data imply that a preference for chromatic over achromatic stimuli exists at birth but that infants do not respond preferentially among different chroma before the third month.

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This research was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Grant no. A0372 to R. Adams.

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