Correlation Between Color Categorization and Warm‐Cool Judgment

Categorical perception (CP) enables the identification and classification of objects and phenomena based on the fundamental categories. Colors are similarly perceived through their underlying basic color categories. This study aimed to verify this hypothesis by predicting that the CP of color influences the judgment of warm–cool so that the color categories and warm–cool categories can be consistently distinguished. In addition, the study sought to investigate the effects of experimental methods and the order in which colors are presented on warm–cool judgments, and to compare them with previous research findings. Two experiments were conducted to achieve these goals. In the first experiment, participants chose whether they agreed with predetermined warm or cool for 39 color stimuli. In the second experiment, participants selected the most appropriate hue name category among the hue name categories presented for the same stimuli. Both experiments used a two‐alternative forced‐choice (2AFC) methodology. To verify the order effect, three different stimulus presentation orders were applied: forward (orange > green > blue, blue > purple > red > orange), random (no specific order), reverse (blue > green > yellow > orange, orange > red > blue). The results of the warm–cool judgment and the hue name category experiments showed that the Green and Red categories were related to the variability in the warm–cool judgment. Contrary to the hypothesis that for colors at the category boundaries, category classification is difficult and therefore the warm–cool judgment will also be ambiguous, the findings demonstrated that the clarity or ambiguity of the warm–cool judgment is inconsistent with the color category. Instead, Orange and Blue consistently derived clear warm or cool judgments, while Green and Red were associated with the ambiguous assessment of warm–cool. Furthermore, the variability observed in the warm–cool judgments is different from previous studies, suggesting that there may be other factors affecting this assessment, such as evaluation methods. This study highlights the subtle interactions between CP and warm–cool judgments. It identifies distinct color categories related to clarity and ambiguity in judgments, demonstrating that various factors can amplify the variability of the warm–cool assessment, particularly for colors within the Green and Red categories. These findings highlight the importance of judgments, including the factors that influence the distinction between warm and cool colors, and challenge the conventional perceptions of classifying warm and cool colors based on fixed color categories.