COLOR-NAMING AND COLOR-MATCHING BY PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN AS A FUNCTION OF VISUAL-FIELD AND SEX

The accuracy for both a color-naming and a color-matching task as a fu nction of visual field and sex was investigated in preschool children. Subjects were 17 boys and 17 girls ranging in age from 4.4 to 5.6 yr. Each subject was tested on both tasks, for which the target stimuli w ere presented tachistoscopically. Accuracy measures for each task were obtained separately for both left and right visual fields. A two-fact or (sex x visual field) analysis of variance with repeated measures on the visual-field factor showed a significant difference between the s exes on the color-naming task only. No significant difference between visual fields was found for either task. However, significant interact ions between sex and visual field for both the color-naming and color- matching tasks were obtained. t tests for simple main effects showed a significant right visual-field advantage for girls in naming colors. Conversely, a significant left visual-field advantage for color-matchi ng was found for boys. Also, on the color-matching task, significant s ex differences were found for both visual fields when compared separat ely. Boys were more accurate for left and girls more accurate for righ t visual field. Boys performed in a more strongly lateralized fashion on the color-matching task than did the girls, supporting the notion o f greater lateralization among males.