Evidence that brown is not an elemental color

Abstract

Two experiments using the continuous judgmental color-naming technique (Sternheim & Boynton, 1966) were performed to investigate possible response biases in an earlier investigation of the possible elemental nature of brown (Fuld, Werner, & Wooten, 1983). We manipulated the order in which the response categories were presented by attempting to build in a maroon category dependence (Experiment 1) and by avoiding a brown category dependence (Experiment 2). The results indicate that the order in which the response categories become available can influence color-naming results; they also indicate that brown is not an elemental color. Yellow and black were reconfirmed as elemental colors, thus upholding the assumption of Hering opponent process models that there are six elemental colors. © 1988 Psychonomic Society, Inc.