Color Semantics in Human Cognition

People have associations between colors and concepts that influence the way they interpret color meaning in information visualizations (e.g., charts, maps, diagrams). These associations are not limited to concrete objects (e.g., fruits, vegetables); even abstract concepts, like sleeping and driving, have systematic color-concept associations. However, color-concept associations and color meaning (color semantics) are not the same thing, and sometimes they conflict. This article describes an approach to understanding color semantics called the color inference framework. The framework shows how color semantics is highly flexible and context dependent, which makes color an effective medium for communication.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Current Directions in Psychological Science

• Publication date

  2023-12-19

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1177/09637214231208189
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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