Mental chronometry and valence in names of colours recognition

The study is focused on the assessment of general differences in names of colours recognition by the help of stimulus subjective lasting scale. The method of verbal production for thirty seconds and the values on rating scales assessing the agreeableness, tension, fashionableness, strangeness, and coolness of the colour served to the comparison. Two groups of high school students aging 18 years were examined, separately processed, and mutually compared using average values in all items. Twelve names of usual colours were examined. The methods used showed constant differences of measurement in all seven parameters in both the studied groups according to the correlation coefficient testifying the reliability of the method. The easiness of forming the cognitive structure is expressed by the shortness of recognition of the name of the colour correlating significantly with the verbal production to the stimulus, with its judged strangeness and fashionableness. The short colour recognition is accompanied by high verbal production to this stimulus and is found in usual and fashionable colours what is interpreted by semantic facilitation on the basis of networks stored in the long-term memory. The parameters of agreeableness, tension, and coolness of colour impressiveness appeared as relatively independent. They did not correlate significantly with the time of recognition and with the following verbal production. They content different valences and emotional preferences and thus they have predominantly the non-cognitive character. The method of mental chronometry represents the advantageous methodological approach to research of the influence of semantic networks on processing of different stimuli. This influence is significant in colours and it has also its practical consequences, e.g. in the field of fashionableness of colours where an apparent shift took place in contemporary time.