Square bananas, blue horses: the relative weight of shape and color in concept recognition and representation

Abstract

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 our findings, in Experiments 2 we asked participants 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.

What flowers do we like? The influence of shape and color on the rating of flower beauty

“…We should design an experiment in which real flowers would be rated and compare the results to those of the present study. A growing body of research shows that the human recognition and categorization of objects and entities is closely linked to, and often facilitated by, interaction with the environment through a sensory-motor activity ( Morlino et al , 2015 ; Scorolli & Borghi , 2015 ; Smith , 2005a ; Smith , 2015b ). It would certainly be beneficial to take this into account in the research of flower beauty.…”

“…Color also had a stronger effect on natural objects than on artificial objects ( Bramão et al , 2011 ). On the other hand, the relative weight of shape and color is context-dependent and can be influenced by both the nature of the object (for example fruit vs. animal) and also the task (categorization vs. motion evaluation) ( Scorolli & Borghi , 2015 ). If we assume that the beauty of an object is closely linked to the ease with which we can recognize and categorize it (see the section above), we should observe a stronger effect of shape than color on the rating of flower beauty, although the presence of color should also serve to increase the perceived beauty of flowers.…”

Knowing that strawberries are red and seeing red strawberries: the interaction between surface colour and colour knowledge information

“…In contrast, when shape information related to the distractor and the target was dissimilar we observed a more prominent role of surface colour. Because object recognition is a shape-driven system (Biederman, 1987;Marr & Nishihara, 1978; see also, Scorolli & Borghi, 2015) is not surprising that the interaction between the top-down colour knowledge and the bottom-up surface colour is mediated by shape information. Previous object recognition models have made a distinction between surface colour information and colour knowledge (Tanaka et al, 2001).…”

Peer Review #1 of "What flowers do we like? The influence of shape and color on the rating of flower beauty (v0.1)"

“…Color also had a stronger effect on natural objects than on artificial objects (Bramão et al, 2011). On the other hand, the relative weight of shape and color is context-dependent and can be influenced by both the nature of the object (for example fruit vs. animal) and also the task (categorization vs. motion evaluation) (Scorolli & Borghi, 2015). If we assume that the beauty of an object is closely linked to the ease with which we can recognize and categorize it (see the section above), we should observe a stronger effect of shape than color on the rating of flower beauty, although the presence of color should also serve to increase the perceived beauty of flowers.…”

“…We should design an experiment in which real flowers would be rated and compare the results to those of the present study. A growing body of research shows that the human recognition and categorization of objects and entities is closely linked to, and often facilitated by, interaction with the environment through a sensory-motor activity (Morlino et al, 2014;Scorolli & Borghi, 2015;Smith, 2005a;Smith, 2005b). It would certainly be beneficial to take this into account in the research of flower beauty.…”