Category: News

New Publication: What color are emergency exit signs? Egress behavior differs from verbal report

Our new article on people’s interpretations of exit sign colors in simulated emergencies was recently published in Applied Ergonomics.

We found that people were most likely to walk toward green signs in virtual environments during simulated emergencies. Yet, immediately after, they reported that exit signs in the building were red and that exit signs should be red. This surprising dissociation between walking behavior and verbal report emphasizes the importance of studying behavior in realistic environments.

 

Kinateder, M. Warren, W. H., & Schloss, K. B. (2019). What color are emergency exit signs? Egress behavior differs from verbal report. Applied Ergonomics, 75, 155-160.

New Publication: Mapping color to meaning in colormap data visualizations

Our paper on how on how people interpret colormap data visualizations was recently published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG) and presented at InfoVis 2018.

We found that people are better at interpreting colormaps when darker colors map to larger quantities (dark-is-more bias), regardless of the background color, when colormaps do not appear to vary in opacity. Yet, when colormaps do appear to vary in opacity there is evidence for an opaque-is-more bias. These two biases work together on light backgrounds but conflict on dark backgrounds.

 

Schloss, K. B., Gramazio, C. C., Silverman, A. T., Parker, M., L., & Wang, A. S. (2019). Mapping color to meaning in colormap data visualizations. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 25, 1, 1-10.

New Publication: Color, Music, and Emotion: Bach to the Blues

 

Our new article on color-music associations for a wide variety of genres was recently published in i-Perception. 

Color-music associations can be predicted from lower-level perceptual dimensions and higher-level emotional dimensions, but evidence indicates that the lower-level correspondences are mediated by shared emotional content between the colors and the music.

 

Whiteford, K. L., Schloss, K. B., Helwig, N. E., & Palmer, S. E. (2018). Color, Music, and Emotion: Bach to the Blues. i-Perception, 9(6), 1-27. 

Congrats to Shannon Sibrel!

The Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin – Madison honored Shannon Sibrel with a 2018 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award for her work in our lab. Congratulations, Shannon!

In the media: Communicating with color

Our recent study on communicating with color by Karen Schloss, Laurent Lessard, Charlotte Walmsley, and Katie Foley was featured in the news:

Interview with Karen Schloss on WISC-TV News 3
Article in the UW Madison News by Chris Barncard.

 

This study was published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications:
Schloss, K. B., Lessard, L., Walmsley, C. S., & Foley, K. (2018). Color inference in visual communication: The meaning of colors in recycling. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3, 5, 1-17.  PDF

 

 

New Publication: Color inference in visual communication: the meaning of colors in recycling

Our new article on how people interpret messages in color-coding systems was published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (CRPI).

REFERENCE: Schloss, K. B., Lessard, L., Walmsley, C. S., & Foley, K. (2018). Color inference in visual communication: The meaning of colors in recycling. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3, 5.

New Publication: Seasonal Changes in Color Preferences Are Linked to Variations in Environmental Colors: A Longitudinal Study of Fall

Our new article on how and why color preferences change of the course of Fall was published in the i-Perception Special Issue: Seeing Colors.

REFERENCE: Schloss, K. B., & Heck, I. A. (2017). Seasonal changes in color preferences are linked to variations in environmental colors: A longitudinal study of fall, i-Perception, 8, 6, 1-19.