Relationship between physical and conceptual color codes.

Abstract

The experiment was designed to determine whether the efficacy of the conceptual color code increases as the availability of the physical color code decreases. On each trial subjects judged whether two color chips were physically identical. On primed trials the prototype color chip was presented for 2 s prior to the test pair. After exposure to test pairs involving moderate goodness levels, all subjects responded to test pairs consisting of either good or poor members of a category. For some subjects the test pairs were presented immediately after the termination of the prototype chip. For other subjects there was either a 1- or 2-s delay between viewing the prototype chip and the presentation of the test pair. Under delay conditions of both 0 s and 1 s, priming with the prototype chip facilitated responses to good members of the category and inhibited responses to poor members of the category. However, after a 2-s delay, priming facilitated responses to both good and poor category members. It was argued that under the 0- and 1-s conditions priming effects were mediated by the physical color code. When the availability of the physical code was reduced by the 2-s delay, priming effects were determined by the modified conceptual representation.