Rosch Heider · Journal of Experimental Psychology · 1972

Universals in Colour
Naming & Memory

Eleanor Rosch Heider challenged the Brown & Lenneberg interpretation of the codability–memory link. Her claim: some areas of colour space are distinctive independently of language. She called them focal colours, and argued they are named faster, named more briefly, and remembered better in every language she tested — including Dani, a New Guinea language with only two basic colour terms.

This replication has three parts.

Warm-up
Best Examples
Pick the best example of four basic colour names (Exp I).
Part I
Colour Naming
Name 12 chips across three categories. Naming time is recorded (Exp II).
Part II
Recognition
Memorise 4 chips, then find them in an 80-chip array after a delay (Exp III).

Your anonymous responses will be compiled and used for in-class discussion.