Human perception of color. The effect of color on a person

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

A person has the ability to see the world around him in all the variety of colors and shades. He can admire the sunset, emerald greenery, bottomless blue sky and other beauties of nature. The perception of color and its impact on the psyche and physical condition of a person will be discussed in this article.

What is color

Color is the subjective perception by the human brain of visible light, differences in its spectral structure, felt by the eye. Humans have a better ability to distinguish colors than other mammals.

Light affects the photosensitive receptors of the retina, and they then produce a signal transmitted to the brain. It turns out that the perception of color is formed in a complex way in the chain: the eye (neural networks of the retina and exteroreceptors) - the visual images of the brain.

Thus, color is an interpretation of the surrounding world in the human mind, resulting from the processing of signals from the light-sensitive cells of the eye - cones and rods. At the same time, the firstresponsible for the perception of color, and the second - for the sharpness of twilight vision.

Color disorders

The eye responds to three primary tones: blue, green and red. And the brain perceives colors as a combination of these three primary colors. If the retina loses the ability to distinguish any color, then the person loses it. For example, there are people who are unable to distinguish green from red. 7% of men and 0.5% of women have such features. It is extremely rare that people do not see the colors around at all, which means that the receptor cells in their retina do not function. Some suffer from weak twilight vision - this means that they have weakly sensitive rods. Such problems arise for various reasons: due to vitamin A deficiency or hereditary factors. However, a person can adapt to "color disorders", therefore, without a special examination, they are almost impossible to detect. People with normal vision are able to distinguish up to a thousand shades. The perception of color by a person varies depending on the conditions of the surrounding world. The same tone looks different in candlelight or sunlight. But human vision quickly adapts to these changes and identifies a familiar color.

Shape perception

Knowing nature, a person was constantly discovering new principles of the world structure - symmetry, rhythm, contrast, proportions. These impressions guided him, transforming the environment, creating his own unique world. ATfurther, the objects of reality gave rise to stable images in the human mind, accompanied by clear emotions. The perception of form, size, color is associated with the individual with the symbolic associative meanings of geometric shapes and lines. For example, in the absence of divisions, the vertical is perceived by a person as something infinite, incommensurable, directed upward, light. A thickening in the lower part or a horizontal base makes it more stable in the eyes of the individual. But the diagonal symbolizes movement and dynamics. It turns out that a composition based on clear verticals and horizontals tends to solemnity, static, stability, and an image based on diagonals tends to variability, instability and movement.

Double impact

It is generally recognized that the perception of color is accompanied by a strong emotional impact. This problem has been studied in detail by painters. V. V. Kandinsky noted that color affects a person in two ways. First, the individual is physically affected when the eye is either fascinated by a color or irritated by it. This impression is fleeting when it comes to familiar objects. However, in an unusual context (an artist's painting, for example), color can cause a strong emotional experience. In this case, we can talk about the second type of influence of color on the individual.

Physical effect of color

Numerous experiments by psychologists and physiologists confirm the ability of color to influence the physical condition of a person. Doctor Podolskydescribed the human visual perception of color as follows.

• Blue color - has an antiseptic effect. It is useful to look at it with suppuration and inflammation. For a sensitive individual, a blue tint helps better than green. But an "overdose" of this color causes some depression and fatigue.
• Green is a hypnotic and pain-relieving color. It has a positive effect on the nervous system, relieves irritability, fatigue and insomnia, and also improves tone and lowers blood pressure.
• Yellow color - stimulates the brain, therefore, helps with mental deficiency.
• Orange color - has a stimulating effect and accelerates the pulse without raising blood pressure. It improves mood, raises vitality, but over time can tire.
• Purple color - affects the lungs, blood vessels, heart and increases the endurance of body tissues.
• Red color - has a warming effect. It stimulates the activity of the brain, eliminates melancholy, but in large doses it irritates.

Kinds of colors

There are different ways to classify the effect of color on perception. There is a theory according to which all tones can be divided into stimulating (warm), disintegrating (cold), pastel, static, deaf, warm dark and cold dark.

Stimulating (warm) colors promote arousal and act as irritants:

• red - life-affirming, strong-willed;
• orange - cozy, warm;
• yellow - radiant,contacting.

Disintegrating (cold) tones dampen excitement:

• purple - heavy, in-depth;
• blue - emphasizing the distance;
• light blue - guiding, leading into space;
• blue-green - changeable, emphasizing movement.

Pastel tones subdue the impact of pure colors:

• pink - mysterious and delicate;
• lilac - isolated and closed;
• pastel green - soft, gentle;
• gray-blue - discreet.

Static colors can balance and distract from exciting colors:

• pure green - refreshing, demanding;
• olive - softening, soothing;
• yellow-green - liberating, renewing;
• purple - pretentious, sophisticated.

Deaf tones promote concentration (black); do not cause excitation (gray); extinguish irritation (white).

Warm dark colors (brown) cause lethargy, inertia:

• ocher - softens the growth of arousal;
• earth brown - stabilizes;
• dark brown - reduces excitability.

Dark cool tones (black and blue, dark gray, green and blue) suppress and isolate irritation.

Color and personality

The perception of color largely depends on the personal characteristics of a person. This fact was proved in his works on the individual perception of color compositions by the German psychologist M. Luscher. According tohis theory, an individual in a different emotional and mental state can react differently to the same color. At the same time, the features of color perception depend on the degree of personality development. But even with a weak spiritual susceptibility, the colors of the surrounding reality are perceived ambiguously. Warm and light tones attract the eye more than dark ones. And at the same time, clear but poisonous colors cause anxiety, and a person's vision involuntarily seeks a cold green or blue hue to rest.

Color in ads

In an advertising appeal, the choice of color cannot depend only on the taste of the designer. After all, bright colors can both attract the attention of a potential client and make it difficult to obtain the necessary information. Therefore, the perception of the shape and color of the individual must necessarily be taken into account when creating advertising. Solutions can be the most unexpected: for example, against a colorful background of bright pictures, a person’s involuntary attention is more likely to be attracted by a strict black-and-white ad, rather than a colorful inscription.

Children and colors

Children's perception of color develops gradually. At first, they only distinguish warm tones: red, orange, and yellow. Then the development of mental reactions leads to the fact that the child begins to perceive blue, violet, blue and green colors. And only with age, the whole variety of color tones and shades becomes available to the baby. At three years old, children, as a rule, name two or three colors, and recognize about five. Moreover, some children have difficulty distinguishingbasic tones even at the age of four. They poorly differentiate colors, hardly remember their names, replace the intermediate shades of the spectrum with the main ones, and so on. In order for a child to learn to adequately perceive the world around him, you need to teach him to distinguish colors correctly.

Developing color perception

Color perception should be taught from an early age. The baby is naturally very inquisitive and needs a variety of information, but it must be introduced gradually so as not to irritate the sensitive psyche of the child. At an early age, children usually associate color with the image of an object. For example, green is a Christmas tree, yellow is a chicken, blue is the sky, and so on. The teacher needs to take advantage of this moment and develop color perception using natural forms.

Color, unlike size and shape, can only be seen. Therefore, in determining the tone, a large role is given to comparison by superposition. If two colors are placed side by side, each child will understand if they are the same or different. At the same time, he still does not need to know the name of the color, it is enough to be able to complete tasks like "Plant each butterfly on a flower of the same color." After the child learns to visually distinguish and compare colors, it makes sense to start choosing according to the model, that is, to the actual development of color perception. To do this, you can use the book by G. S. Shvaiko called "Games and game exercises for the development of speech." Acquaintance with the colors of the surrounding world helps children feel reality more subtly and fully, develops thinking,observation, enriches speech.

Visual color

An interesting experiment was put on by one resident of Britain - Neil Harbisson. Since childhood, he could not distinguish colors. Doctors found a rare visual defect in him - achromatopsia. The guy saw the surrounding reality as if in a black and white movie and considered himself a socially cut off person. One day, Neil agreed to an experiment and allowed himself to have a special cybernetic tool implanted in his head that allows him to see the world in all its colorful diversity. It turns out that the perception of color by the eye is not necessary at all. A chip and an antenna with a sensor were implanted in the back of Neal's head, which capture the vibration and convert it into sound. In addition, each note corresponds to a certain color: fa - red, la - green, do - blue and so on. Now, for Harbisson, a visit to a supermarket is akin to visiting a nightclub, and an art gallery reminds him of going to the Philharmonic. Technology gave Neil a sensation never seen before in nature: visual sound. A man makes interesting experiments with his new feeling, for example, he comes close to different people, studies their faces and composes music for portraits.

Conclusion

One can talk endlessly about the perception of color. An experiment with Neil Harbisson, for example, suggests that the human psyche is very plastic and can adapt to the most unusual conditions. In addition, it is obvious that people have a desire for beauty, which is expressed in the innerthe need to see the world in color rather than monochrome. Vision is a unique and fragile tool, the study of which will take a long time. It will be useful for everyone to learn as much as possible about him.