COLOR IMPROVES OBJECT RECOGNITION IN NORMAL AND LOW-VISION

Does color improve object recognition? If so, is the improvement great er for images with low spatial resolution in which there is less shape information? Do people with low visual acuity benefit more from color ? Three experiments measured reaction time (RT) and accuracy for namin g food objects displayed in 4 types of images: gray scale or color, an d high or low spatial resolution (produced by blur). Normally sighted Ss had faster RTs with color, but the improvement was not significantl y greater for images with low spatial resolution. Low vision subjects were also faster with color, but the difference did not depend signifi cantly on acuity. In 2 additional experiments, it was found that the f aster RTs for color stimuli were related to objects' prototypicality b ut not to their color diagnosticity. It was concluded that color does improve object recognition, and the mechanism is probably sensory rath er than cognitive in origin.