Colors:

Color affects the physiological processes of a person and his psychological state. Knowing the features of each color, you can form a certain image, evoke certain emotions, associations.

Brief description of color associations:

Red- warm and irritating, stimulates the brain, improves mood. The color of leadership, masculine color, this color also has an exciting effect on the nervous system. Why do you think telephone booths are painted red or orange on the inside? That's right, to talk less. On the other hand, red-orange color improves mood. Red color is preferred by amorous and sexy people.
Excitement, energy, passion, desire, speed, strength, power, warmth, love, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence, everything intense and passionate.

Purple- earnings, spirituality, nobility, ceremony, incomprehensible, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, arrogance.

Blue, blue color creates a cool environment, relieves pain in neuralgia and inflammation, means disappointment and suspicion. In the perception of blue, time is greatly underestimated. Under the influence of this color in a person, the level of anxiety decreases, tension and blood pressure decrease. With too long exposure, fatigue and fatigue occur.
Peace, tranquility, tranquility, stability, harmony, unification, trust, truth, conservatism, security, purity, order, loyalty, sky, water, cold, technology, depression, appetite suppressant.

Green color signifies distrust and balance. Calms the nervous system. Reduces pain, fatigue, normalizes blood pressure. Favors concentration. The field of habituation to green increases the number of correctly solved problems by 10%, while reducing the number of errors by 20%, but at the same time there is a certain underestimation of time. Green is quiet and soothing. Prefer capable, self-confident, striving for self-affirmation and balanced people.
Nature, healthy environment, restoration, youth, cheerfulness, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy, failure.

Orange color- the most dynamic, youthful and cheerful color. Stimulates the senses and speeds up the heartbeat, sharpens perception and helps resolve difficult situations, tasks and problems. Cheerful and improvised. The excitatory action is less intense than that of red, therefore more pleasant. Color slightly accelerates the pulse without increasing blood pressure, creating a feeling of well-being and happiness. It has a beneficial effect on performance, subject to periodic rest from it. With prolonged perception of orange, fatigue and even dizziness may appear.
Energy, balance, warmth, enthusiasm, lively, expansive, lush, demanding attention.

Yellow cheerful color contributes to the solution of problems and problems. Based on the statement that yellow is a mixture of green and red, then it combines the properties of these colors. Yellow color stimulates the brain, causes exciting tension, demanding discharges. The preference for yellow means the desire for independence, expanding the horizon of perception. It is the brightest color in the spectrum. It is very flexible and adapts easily, it penetrates everywhere. With the help of the yellow beam, you can get to the origins of the problem. Yellow loves to learn, is distinguished by quick wits, clarity of thought, and accuracy. Yellow knows everything about life... and yet is full of optimism. This color is in constant struggle, does not yield without a fight.
Joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunlight, summer, gold, philosophy, fraud, cowardice, betrayal, jealousy, greed, deceit, illness, risk.

Purple love people with unstable character. It acts on the heart and blood vessels, as well as on the psyche. It is also called "the color of female loneliness".

Brown- the color of conservative people who do not want to change anything. Earth, hearth, home, reliability, convenience, endurance, stability.

How certain colors affect Russian consumers:

Red- Excitement, power, sex, passion, speed, danger.
Blue- trust, reliability, belonging, coolness.
Yellow- Warmth, light, welcome, happiness
Orange- playfulness, warmth
Green- Nature, new, cool, growth, abundance
Violet- Royal, spirituality, dignity
Pink- Soft, sweet, nutrition, protection
White- Pure, virgin, youthful, temperate
Black- Sophistication, elegance, seductiveness, mystery
Gold(yellow) - Prestige, dear
Silver(gray) - Prestige, cold, scientific

Market researchers also decided that color also affects people's habits. Momentum buyers respond best to red-orange, black and royal blue. Buyers who plan and stick to budgets will respond best to pink, light their blue and navy. Traditionally, consumers respond to pastel pink, also rose color - blue sky.

Tone:

Black- motivated use of force, creation, learning, foresight, content, hidden treasures, destructiveness, use of force as a manifestation of weakness and selfishness, suppression, depression, emptiness, abstinence, restrictions. Black hides what he possesses. The person who prefers it tends to hide his inner world from those around you. Black symbolizes the end. Every evening we are happy to return to the night to recuperate. But it is he who gives rise to everything new. Life begins with the unknown. Black is able to control the situation thanks to secret knowledge. Black seeks to retain his power by any means. On the other hand, this person feels the need for external control.
Power, sexuality, complexity, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, anonymity, discontent, depth, style, sadness, remorse, anger, subway, good techno color, mourning, death (Western cultures).

White- intactness, fullness, self-giving, unity, lightness, revealing the hidden and false, isolation, futility, stiffness, disappointment, stiffness, boredom. The main quality of white is equality. White seeks justice. He is impartial. White symbolizes innocence. This is the color of a real bride, a girl who does not yet know passion. White is characterized by a certain density. Holding a transparent crystal in your hands, you see Radiance in front of you. Picking up a white cotton sheet, you can’t see anything through it. White is one step below the flawless purity of Radiance. White contains all the colors of the spectrum equally, being the result of their mixing. Therefore, white can be used to create certain combinations. All colors in white are equal. In mythology, white is a symbol of unity. White seeks justice. The white wig on the judge's head speaks of his impartiality. White? spiritual guardian. If white is present, then everything will be fine. A doctor in a white coat pulls a man out of the jaws of death.
Reverence, purity, simplicity, peace, humility, accuracy, innocence, youth, birth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death ( oriental cultures), cold, clinical, sterile.

Grey- security, reliability, intelligence, sedate, modesty, dignity, completeness, solid, conservative, practical, old age, sadness.

Grey, black and white(tones) - are the connecting link for colors. Have no effect. They act as a background for colors and increase the intensity of the adjacent color, and when added, they increase the lightness (light gray, white) or saturation (dark gray, black) of the color.

According to Luscher (test)

Red color- this indicates that he, as a rule, physically strong man living, first of all, today. These people are very excitable, energetic, loving and enterprising. But, usually, this enterprise does not go beyond twenty-four hours. They are practical painfully, without a twinkle.

Yellow- it's a completely different story. It is chosen by dreamers out of this world. They do not try too much to coordinate their actions with everyday realities and try to transform the wretchedness surrounding them into a kind of fairy tale.

Green prefer self-confident and persistent people who direct all their perseverance to ensure a comfortable old age.

Blue color- these are, as a rule, phlegmatic, striving for order and stability.

Brown color preferred by people who are not settled in life.

Spatial properties of color/tone.

Warm local colors and their spectral shades (red, orange, yellow) visually reduce the space, and cold colors and their shades (violet, blue) and tones (black, white) visually enlarge it, the space.

Each color has its own character:

Red(and its spectral shades) - is associated with wealth and luxury. Red is a symbol of strength and energy, so it is best used in public spaces and living rooms.

Blue(and its spectral shades) - gives a feeling of air, spaciousness, coolness and peace, so it is better to use it in more intimate rooms designed for relaxation.
The most neutral in the chromium/achromatic spectrum is the gray tone.
Grey- is friendly and supports any shade of color and tone and goes with anything. Gray, like all tones, is the link between colors and shades of colors. Gray must be used either directly as a single local color of the form, or only as a secondary connecting element or as an element of the background structure of the coloristic composition. Gray should not be allowed to dominate, otherwise it becomes "gray", boring, dull. Brings depression to the immature children's minds.

Experimental check of placement of color combinations.

According to the degree of deterioration of perception, they are arranged in the following order:
blue on white
black on yellow
green on white
black on white
green on red
red on yellow
red on white
orange on black
black on purple
orange on white
red on green

If we want both decorative forms to be the same in terms of impact, it is necessary to change the ratio of painted surfaces. Often we judge a color by its visual weight. If dark colors are given on a surface below and light colors are given above, then such a solution makes a stable impression. On the contrary, there will be an impression of instability.

color and person

In order for all the color shades of your appearance to be harmoniously combined, emphasizing the natural beauty, you need to give Special attention selection of the exact nuance of colors. A warm or cold color direction sets the tone for all your body colors. The colors we choose influence how we look.
The effect of color on human physiology has been experimentally confirmed and depends on the amount of color, color quality, exposure time, features nervous system, age, gender and other factors.

A direct physiological effect on the entire human body explains the phenomena caused by red and blue colors, especially when they are maximally saturated.

Red color excites the nervous system, causes an increase in respiration and heart rate, and activates the muscular system.

Blue color has an inhibitory effect on the nervous system.

Red, yellow, orange the colors are extraversion colors, i.e. outward impulse.

Blue, purple, green the opposite is true for passive introversion and inward-turning impulses.

orange and red colors, exciting along with the visual and auditory center of the brain, which causes an apparent increase in the volume of noise. It is not without reason that these active colors are often called "screaming".

Green and blue, soothing colors, weaken the excitation of the auditory center, i.e. as if attenuate or compensate for the volume of noise.

Primary colors have the following characteristics.

Hazel (ochre) color seems dry greenish blue (cobalt)- wet, pink- sweet, red- warm, orange- screaming violet- heavy, yellow- easy. This action of color is caused by synesthesia, i.e. stimulation of one sense organ while stimulating another.

The main characteristics of the apparent effect of colors are given below.

White	easy
Yellow	easy	warm	dry
Orange		warm	dry	screaming, loud
Red	heavy	warm	dry	screaming, loud
Violet	heavy
Blue	heavy	cold	wet	quiet calm
Green		chill	wet	calm
Blue	easy		wet	quiet calm
Brown	heavy	warm	wet
Black	heavy		dry

With the psychological impact of color, we are talking about feelings of experience that we can experience under the influence of a particular color. This influence is very closely related to the optical properties of color.

Absolutely green is the calmest color. It does not move anywhere and has no overtone of joy or sadness. This constant lack of movement is beneficial for tired people, but can also become boring over time.

When yellow is introduced into the green color, it revives, becomes more active. When blue is added, on the contrary, it starts to sound different, it becomes more serious, thoughtful. On the other hand, the yellow color worries a person, pricks him, excites him. Compared with the state of the human soul, it could be used as a colorful expression of madness, blind rage (Dostoevsky's yellow color). Blue tends to deepen. The deeper, darker the blue color becomes, the more it calls a person to the infinite, awakens in him a hunger for purity and the supersensible. A very dark blue gives an element of peace. Brought to the side chapels of black, the blue color receives an overtone of sadness. Becoming lighter, blue acquires an indifferent character and becomes distant and indifferent to a person, like a blue sky. And becoming lighter and more silent, until it reaches the soundless rest - it will become white.

Often a white tone is defined as "non-paint". It is, as it were, a symbol of the world where all colors, all material properties disappear. Therefore, the white tone acts on our psyche as silence. But this silence, as it were, is not dead, but rather full of possibilities. The black tone, on the contrary, acts as something without possibilities, as a dead spot, as silence without a future. The balance of white and black gives rise to gray, a naturally gray tone cannot give either movement or sound.

Gray - silent and motionless, but this immobility is of a different nature than that of green, born of two active colors - yellow and blue. Therefore, the gray tone is an inconsolable stillness.

The red color, we perceive as a characteristically warm color, acts internally as a vital, lively, restless color, which, however, does not have the frivolity of yellow. Unlike yellow, the red color seems to glow within itself. But the ideal red color changes its influence very much when the color changes. When black is added to red, a dull, hard brown that is not capable of movement is produced. In a colder shade of red, the activity of the flame disappears. By becoming orange, red acquires the radiance of yellow, but always retains a seriousness.

Violet is like a chilled red, so it sounds a little painful, like something extinguished and sad.

The choice of a preferred (favorite) color by a person is determined by his character and also depends on the social factor.

Based on sociological research, the following series of colors was obtained as preference decreases:

Blue - purple - white - pink - magenta - red - green - yellow - orange - brown - black.

The nature and expressiveness of color can vary significantly depending on various associations. Each of us tries to explain the emotional characteristics of a particular color by the nature of the objects on which we usually perceive this color. This is very idiosyncrasy each person, depending on the experience acquired by him. It is very difficult to establish any rules here, but with some probability it can be assumed that red is associated with fire and blood, yellow with the sun, blue with the sky, water, green with forests and meadows. Finally, there is such a thing as hearing color, i.e. Each color is associated with a musical note. This phenomenon cannot be accurately described for any particular color, but there is not a single person who would look for the impression of a bright yellow on the bass keys of a piano.

Color symbolism.

The symbolism of color is based on the objective features of the psyche, on all sorts of associations, often quite simple:

Green - spring, awakening, hope
blue - sky, purity
red - fire, blood
yellow - sun, life
black - darkness, fear, obscurity, death

This motivation is based on everyday experience, which is complemented by mythological, religious and aesthetic views. As a rule, blue color means thinking, yellow - intuition, red - excitement, green - the function of perception. But it happens that opposite meanings are combined in the same color, for example, yellow - femininity and treason.

On the other hand, different colors correspond to the same abstract concept.
Love - maternal - white, for God - blue, for yourself - yellow, for your beloved - red, for a friend - green, sex - black.

This can be said about the most saturated colors, because. when the color changes, its symbolism also changes, for example, red - activity, passion when white is added becomes pink, which symbolizes tenderness. With the addition of black, burgundy is obtained, which has an "immoral" symbolic meaning. The most solemn combination is white, red and gilding. The meanings of colors in heraldry are constant and canonized.

The table shows the metals and jewels corresponding to these colors, as well as the symbolic meanings that heraldry gives to the corresponding colors.

red	blue	green	black	yellow, gold	white, silver	purple
ruby	svpfir	emerald	diamond	topaz	pearl	amethyst
right force courage Love bravery	glory honor loyalty sincerity	Liberty exultation hope health	constancy modesty death mourning peace	supremacy greatness respect splendor wealth	purity innocence wisdom serenity	high- birth power supremacy dignity greatness

Color in the individual and social practice of a person.

The role of color in the life and activities of each individual and society as a whole is exceptionally great: in industry, transport, art, and modern technology for transmitting information.

In everyday life and in production, colors and their combinations are intensively used as symbols that replace entire concepts in the rules of conduct. So, signal lights of one color or another on highways allow or prohibit movement, warn, require attention. In industry and other collective activities, colors as symbols are used to mark pipelines with various substances or temperatures, various electrical wires, all kinds of tokens, information cards, bank documents, banknotes, overalls, etc. In industry and everyday life, color is one of the main factors in production. and domestic comfort. The study of the psychological impact of certain color combinations - color harmonies - is the subject of color aesthetics. Color harmonies are widely used both in art and in the organization of production processes to create psychological accents that increase labor productivity and reduce employee fatigue, as well as domestic comfort, contributing to an active and most complete rest.

Color is of particular importance for improving the quality and standardization of industrial products. As an indicator High Quality color products are indispensable in cases where other objective or subjective methods cannot be applied for one reason or another, or when their application requires long and laborious work or expensive equipment. Therefore, comparator methods for identifying the color of many foods and substances used in the chemical, light and food industries, as well as in other areas, have become widespread. National economy. For practical application These methods produce various color charts, atlases, paint samples, comparators, colorimeters, color photometers and densitometers.

There is an objective visual-psychological fact of the perception of objects in their likeness.

Our eye and psyche first of all determine such objects according to some qualities; either in the likeness of shapes or in the likeness of color.
Not only individual colors, but also color combinations have a psychological impact on a person. And here it is very great importance has an arrangement of colors in space. For example, red excites, and green calms, but located next to the same spots, they are completely balanced, and peace is achieved. On the contrary, when an extraneous visual is included in the composition, it leads to the emergence of a dynamic color combination of contrasting colors.

The psychophysiological effect of color largely depends on: greater or lesser saturation of the color, the size of the color spot, the distance and direction from which the color affects. A color located vertically is perceived as light, a diagonal - dynamics, a horizontal - stability. Color tension at the bottom - the composition is natural and stable. Above - unnatural position, high pressure. From any edge - the instability of the composition.

From the names "active" and "passive" it follows that certain colors have a greater or lesser power of emotional impact. To neutralize orange and blue, you need significantly more blue than orange.

The concentration of the active color in the upper right corner activates the composition, everything increases in size. On the contrary, in the lower left it creates the illusion of passivity and visual compression, backward movement.

The color represented by the circle increases the plane and creates forward movement, the impression is enhanced if it is a yellow, red or orange circle. A square painted in cold tones, on the contrary, creates the impression of concavity and compression.

The more colors differ from each other in lightness, saturation and hue, the less they harmonize with each other. There is a concept of edge contrast i.e. a uniformly colored surface appears lighter or darker at the edge if it borders on a darker or lighter surface.

On a light background, all colors darken, on a dark background they brighten. The true lightness of a color can only be observed against a neutral background of medium lightness. Depending on the background, achromatic colors acquire an apparent chromaticity. So, a gray spot on a green background acquires a pink tint. Chromatic colors surrounded by highly saturated colors change the hue somewhat, for example, yellow on a green background becomes slightly orange, and red surrounded by green becomes more saturated. For example, a red dot on different backgrounds. The quality of the red dot is the same, but the visual perception is different.

The material was outlined and compiled

About section

This section contains articles devoted to phenomena or versions that in one way or another may be interesting or useful to researchers of the unexplained.
Articles are divided into categories:
Informational. Contains useful information for researchers various areas knowledge.
Analytical. They include an analysis of the accumulated information about versions or phenomena, as well as descriptions of the results of the experiments.
Technical. They accumulate information about technical solutions that can be used in the field of studying unexplained facts.
Methods. They contain descriptions of the methods used by group members in investigating facts and studying phenomena.
Media. They contain information about the reflection of phenomena in the entertainment industry: films, cartoons, games, etc.
Known misconceptions. Disclosures of known unexplained facts, collected including from third-party sources.

Article type:

Informational

Features of human perception. Vision

A person cannot see in total darkness. In order for a person to see an object, it is necessary that the light is reflected from the object and hit the retina of the eye. Light sources can be natural (fire, sun) and artificial (various lamps). But what is light?

According to modern scientific concepts, light is electromagnetic waves of a certain (rather high) frequency range. This theory originates from Huygens and is confirmed by many experiments (in particular, the experience of T. Jung). At the same time, in the nature of light, carpuscular-wave dualism is fully manifested, which largely determines its properties: when propagating, light behaves like a wave, when emitted or absorbed, like a particle (photon). Thus, the light effects that occur during the propagation of light (interference, diffraction, etc.) are described by Maxwell's equations, and the effects that appear during its absorption and emission (photoelectric effect, Compton effect) are described by the equations of quantum field theory.

Simply put, the human eye is a radio receiver capable of receiving electromagnetic waves of a certain (optical) frequency range. The primary sources of these waves are the bodies that emit them (the sun, lamps, etc.), the secondary sources are the bodies that reflect the waves of primary sources. Light from sources enters the eye and makes them visible to humans. Thus, if the body is transparent to the waves of the visible frequency range (air, water, glass, etc.), then it cannot be registered by the eye. At the same time, the eye, like any other radio receiver, is “tuned” to a certain range of radio frequencies (in the case of the eye, this range is from 400 to 790 terahertz), and does not perceive waves that have higher (ultraviolet) or lower (infrared) frequencies. This "tuning" is manifested in the entire structure of the eye - from the lens and vitreous body, which are transparent in this particular frequency range, to the size of photoreceptors, which in this analogy are similar to radio receiver antennas and have dimensions that provide the most efficient reception of radio waves of this particular range.

All this together determines the frequency range in which a person sees. It is called the visible light range.

Visible radiation - electromagnetic waves perceived by the human eye, which occupy a portion of the spectrum with a wavelength of approximately 380 (violet) to 740 nm (red). Such waves occupy the frequency range from 400 to 790 terahertz. Electromagnetic radiation with such frequencies is also called visible light, or simply light (in the narrow sense of the word). The human eye is most sensitive to light at 555 nm (540 THz), in the green part of the spectrum.

White light separated by a prism into the colors of the spectrum

When a white beam is decomposed in a prism, a spectrum is formed in which radiation of different wavelengths is refracted under different angle. The colors included in the spectrum, that is, those colors that can be obtained by light waves of one wavelength (or a very narrow range), are called spectral colors. The main spectral colors (having their own name), as well as the emission characteristics of these colors, are presented in the table:

What does one see

Thanks to vision, we receive 90% of the information about the world around us, so the eye is one of the most important sense organs.
The eye can be called a complex optical device. Its main task is to "transmit" the correct image to the optic nerve.

The structure of the human eye

The cornea is the transparent membrane that covers the front of the eye. There are no blood vessels in it, it has a large refractive power. Included in optical system eyes. The cornea borders on the opaque outer shell of the eye - the sclera.

The anterior chamber of the eye is the space between the cornea and the iris. It is filled with intraocular fluid.

The iris is shaped like a circle with a hole inside (the pupil). The iris consists of muscles, with the contraction and relaxation of which the size of the pupil changes. It enters the choroid of the eye. The iris is responsible for the color of the eyes (if it is blue, it means that there are few pigment cells in it, if it is brown, there are many). It performs the same function as the aperture in a camera, adjusting the light output.

The pupil is a hole in the iris. Its dimensions usually depend on the level of illumination. The more light, the smaller the pupil.

The lens is the "natural lens" of the eye. It is transparent, elastic - it can change its shape, "focusing" almost instantly, due to which a person sees well both near and far. It is located in the capsule, held by the ciliary girdle. The lens, like the cornea, is part of the optical system of the eye. The transparency of the lens of the human eye is excellent - most of the light with wavelengths between 450 and 1400 nm is transmitted. Light with a wavelength above 720 nm is not perceived. The lens of the human eye is almost colorless at birth, but acquires a yellowish color with age. This protects the retina of the eye from exposure to ultraviolet rays.

The vitreous body is a gel-like transparent substance located in the back of the eye. The vitreous body maintains the shape of the eyeball and is involved in intraocular metabolism. Included in the optical system of the eye.

The retina - consists of photoreceptors (they are sensitive to light) and nerve cells. Receptor cells located in the retina are divided into two types: cones and rods. In these cells, which produce the enzyme rhodopsin, the energy of light (photons) is converted into electrical energy of the nervous tissue, i.e. photochemical reaction.

Sclera - an opaque outer shell of the eyeball, passing in front of the eyeball into a transparent cornea. 6 oculomotor muscles are attached to the sclera. It contains a small number of nerve endings and blood vessels.

The choroid - lines the posterior sclera, adjacent to the retina, with which it is closely connected. The choroid is responsible for the blood supply to the intraocular structures. In diseases of the retina, it is very often involved in the pathological process. There are no nerve endings in the choroid, therefore, when it is ill, pain does not occur, usually signaling some kind of malfunction.

Optic nerve - with the help of the optic nerve, signals from nerve endings are transmitted to the brain.

A person is not born with an already developed organ of vision: in the first months of life, the formation of the brain and vision occurs, and by about 9 months they are able to almost instantly process incoming visual information. To see, you need light.

Light sensitivity of the human eye

The ability of the eye to perceive light and recognize varying degrees of its brightness is called light perception, and the ability to adapt to different brightness of illumination is called adaptation of the eye; light sensitivity is estimated by the value of the threshold of light stimulus.
A person with good eyesight can see the light from a candle at a distance of several kilometers at night. The maximum light sensitivity is reached after a sufficiently long dark adaptation. It is determined under the action of a light flux in a solid angle of 50 ° at a wavelength of 500 nm (maximum sensitivity of the eye). Under these conditions, the threshold energy of light is about 10–9 erg/s, which is equivalent to the flux of several quanta of the optical range per second through the pupil.
The contribution of the pupil to the adjustment of the sensitivity of the eye is extremely insignificant. The entire range of brightness that our visual mechanism is capable of perceiving is enormous: from 10-6 cd m² for a fully dark-adapted eye to 106 cd m² for a fully light-adapted eye. The mechanism for such a wide sensitivity range lies in the decomposition and restoration of photosensitive pigments. in the photoreceptors of the retina - cones and rods.
The human eye contains two types of light-sensitive cells (receptors): highly sensitive rods responsible for twilight (night) vision, and less sensitive cones responsible for color vision.

Normalized graphs of the light sensitivity of cones of the human eye S, M, L. The dotted line shows the twilight, "black and white" susceptibility of the rods.

In the human retina, there are three types of cones, the sensitivity maxima of which fall on the red, green and blue parts of the spectrum. The distribution of cone types in the retina is uneven: "blue" cones are closer to the periphery, while "red" and "green" cones are randomly distributed. The matching of cone types to the three "primary" colors enables the recognition of thousands of colors and shades. Spectral sensitivity curves three types cones partially overlap, which contributes to the phenomenon of metamerism. Very strong light excites all 3 types of receptors, and therefore is perceived as blindingly white radiation.

Uniform irritation of all three elements, corresponding to the weighted average daylight, also causes a white sensation.

The genes encoding light-sensitive opsin proteins are responsible for human color vision. According to supporters of the three-component theory, the presence of three different proteins that respond to different wavelengths is sufficient for color perception.

Most mammals have only two of these genes, so they have black and white vision.

The red light-sensitive opsin is encoded in humans by the OPN1LW gene.
Other human opsins encode the OPN1MW, OPN1MW2, and OPN1SW genes, the first two of which encode proteins that are sensitive to light at medium wavelengths, and the third is responsible for the opsin that is sensitive to the short-wavelength part of the spectrum.

line of sight

The field of view is the space simultaneously perceived by the eye with a fixed gaze and a fixed position of the head. It has certain boundaries corresponding to the transition of the optically active part of the retina to the optically blind.
The field of view is artificially limited by the protruding parts of the face - the back of the nose, the upper edge of the orbit. In addition, its boundaries depend on the position of the eyeball in the orbit. In addition, in each eye healthy person There is an area of ​​the retina that is not sensitive to light, which is called the blind spot. Nerve fibers from the receptors to the blind spot go over the retina and are collected in the optic nerve, which passes through the retina to its other side. Thus, there are no light receptors in this place.

In this confocal micrograph, the optic disc is shown in black, the cells lining the blood vessels are in red, and the contents of the vessels are in green. Retinal cells appear as blue spots.

Blind spots in two eyes are in different places (symmetrically). This fact, and the fact that the brain corrects the perceived image, explains why, with normal use of both eyes, they are invisible.

To observe your blind spot, close your right eye and look with your left eye at the right cross, which is circled. Keep your face and monitor upright. Without taking your eyes off the right cross, bring (or move away) your face from the monitor and at the same time follow the left cross (without looking at it). At some point it will disappear.

This method can also estimate the approximate angular size of the blind spot.

Reception for blind spot detection

There are also paracentral divisions of the visual field. Depending on the participation in the vision of one or both eyes, a distinction is made between monocular and binocular fields of view. In clinical practice, the monocular field of view is usually examined.

Binocular and stereoscopic vision

Visual analyzer of a person in normal conditions provides binocular vision, that is, vision with two eyes with a single visual perception. The main reflex mechanism of binocular vision is the image fusion reflex - the fusion reflex (fusion), which occurs with simultaneous stimulation of functionally dissimilar nerve elements of the retina of both eyes. As a result, there is a physiological doubling of objects that are closer or further than the fixed point (binocular focusing). Physiological doubling (focus) helps to assess the distance of an object from the eyes and creates a feeling of relief, or stereoscopic vision.

When seeing with one eye, the perception of depth (relief distance) is carried out by Ch. arr. due to secondary auxiliary signs of remoteness (the apparent size of the object, linear and aerial perspectives, obstruction of some objects by others, accommodation of the eye, etc.).

Pathways of the visual analyzer
1 - Left half of the visual field, 2 - Right half of the visual field, 3 - Eye, 4 - Retina, 5 - Optic nerves, 6 - Oculomotor nerve, 7 - Chiasma, 8 - Optic tract, 9 - Lateral geniculate body, 10 - Upper tubercles of the quadrigemina, 11 - Non-specific visual pathway, 12 - Visual cortex.

A person sees not with his eyes, but through his eyes, from where information is transmitted through the optic nerve, chiasm, visual tracts to certain areas of the occipital lobes of the cerebral cortex, where that picture is formed. outside world which we see. All these organs make up our visual analyzer or visual system.

Change in vision with age

Retinal elements begin to form at 6–10 weeks of fetal development; final morphological maturation occurs by 10–12 years of age. In the process of development of the body, the color perception of the child changes significantly. In a newborn, only rods function in the retina, providing black and white vision. The number of cones is small and they are not yet mature. Color recognition in early age depends on the brightness, not on the spectral characteristics of the color. As the cones mature, children first distinguish between yellow, then green, and then red (already from the age of 3 months, it was possible to develop conditioned reflexes to these colors). Cones begin to function fully by the end of the 3rd year of life. IN school age the distinctive color sensitivity of the eye is increased. The sensation of color reaches its maximum development by the age of 30 and then gradually decreases.

In a newborn, the diameter of the eyeball is 16 mm, and its weight is 3.0 g. The growth of the eyeball continues after birth. It grows most intensively during the first 5 years of life, less intensively - up to 9-12 years. In newborns, the shape of the eyeball is more spherical than in adults, as a result, in 90% of cases, they have far-sighted refraction.

Pupils in newborns are narrow. Due to the predominance of the tone of the sympathetic nerves innervating the muscles of the iris, pupils become wide at 6–8 years of age, which increases the risk sunburn retina. At 8-10 years old, the pupil narrows. At the age of 12–13, the speed and intensity of the pupillary reaction to light become the same as in an adult.

In newborns and children preschool age the lens is more convex and more elastic than in an adult, its refractive power is higher. This allows the child to clearly see the object at a shorter distance from the eye than an adult. And if in a baby it is transparent and colorless, then in an adult the lens has a slight yellowish tint, the intensity of which may increase with age. This does not affect visual acuity, but may affect the perception of blue and purple colors.

Sensory and motor functions of vision develop simultaneously. In the first days after birth, eye movements are not synchronous, with the immobility of one eye, you can observe the movement of the other. The ability to fix an object with a glance is formed at the age of 5 days to 3-5 months.

A reaction to the shape of an object is noted already in a 5-month-old child. In preschoolers, the first reaction is the shape of the object, then its size, and already in last turn- color.
Visual acuity increases with age, and stereoscopic vision improves. Stereoscopic vision reaches its optimum level by the age of 17–22, and from the age of 6, girls have a higher stereoscopic visual acuity than boys. The field of view is greatly increased. By the age of 7, its size is approximately 80% of the size of the adult visual field.

After 40 years, there is a drop in the level of peripheral vision, that is, there is a narrowing of the field of view and a deterioration in lateral vision.
After about 50 years of age, the production of tear fluid is reduced, so the eyes are less moisturized than at a younger age. Excessive dryness can be expressed in redness of the eyes, pain, tearing from the wind or bright light. This may be independent of common factors (frequent eye strain or air pollution).

With age, the human eye begins to perceive the surroundings more dimly, with a decrease in contrast and brightness. The ability to recognize color shades, especially those that are close in color, may also be impaired. This is directly related to the reduction in the number of retinal cells that perceive color shades, contrast, and brightness.

Some age-related visual impairments are caused by presbyopia, which is manifested by fuzziness, blurring of the picture when trying to see objects located close to the eyes. The ability to focus on small objects requires an accommodation of about 20 diopters (focusing on an object 50 mm from the observer) in children, up to 10 diopters at the age of 25 (100 mm) and levels from 0.5 to 1 diopter at the age of 60 years (possibility focusing on the subject at 1-2 meters). It is believed that this is due to the weakening of the muscles that regulate the pupil, while the reaction of the pupils to the light flux entering the eye also deteriorates. Therefore, there are difficulties with reading in dim light and the adaptation time increases with changes in illumination.

Also, with age, visual fatigue and even headaches begin to occur faster.

Color perception

The psychology of color perception is the human ability to perceive, identify and name colors.

The perception of color depends on a complex of physiological, psychological, cultural and social factors. Initially, studies of color perception were carried out within the framework of color science; later ethnographers, sociologists and psychologists joined the problem.

Visual receptors are rightfully considered "the part of the brain brought to the surface of the body." Unconscious processing and correction visual perception ensures the "correctness" of vision, and it is also the cause of "errors" in the evaluation of color in certain conditions. Thus, the elimination of the "background" illumination of the eye (for example, when looking at distant objects through a narrow tube) significantly changes the perception of the color of these objects.

Simultaneous viewing of the same non-luminous objects or light sources by several observers with normal color vision, under the same viewing conditions, makes it possible to establish an unambiguous correspondence between the spectral composition of the compared radiations and the color sensations they cause. Color measurements (colorimetry) are based on this. Such a correspondence is unambiguous, but not one-to-one: the same color sensations can cause radiation fluxes of different spectral composition (metamerism).

Color definitions like physical quantity, There are many. But even in the best of them, from a colorimetric point of view, the mention is often omitted that the specified (not mutual) unambiguity is achieved only under standardized conditions of observation, illumination, etc., the change in color perception with a change in the intensity of radiation of the same spectral composition is not taken into account. (the phenomenon of Bezold - Brucke), the so-called. color adaptation of the eye, etc. Therefore, the variety of color sensations arising under real lighting conditions, variations in the angular sizes of elements compared in color, their fixation in different parts of the retina, different psychophysiological states of the observer, etc., is always richer than the colorimetric color variety.

For example, some colors (such as orange or yellow) are defined in the same way in colorimetry, which in everyday life are perceived (depending on lightness) as brown, “chestnut”, brown, “chocolate”, “olive”, etc. one of the best attempts to define the concept of color, due to Erwin Schrödinger, the difficulties are removed by the simple absence of indications of the dependence of color sensations on numerous specific conditions of observation. According to Schrödinger, Color is a property of the spectral composition of radiations, common to all radiations that are visually indistinguishable for humans.

Due to the nature of the eye, light that causes the sensation of the same color (for example, white), that is, the same degree of excitation of the three visual receptors, may have a different spectral composition. In most cases, a person does not notice this effect, as if “thinking” the color. This is because although the color temperature of different lighting may be the same, the spectra of natural and artificial light reflected by the same pigment can differ significantly and cause a different color sensation.

The human eye perceives many different shades, but there are "forbidden" colors that are inaccessible to it. An example is a color that plays with both yellow and blue tones at the same time. This happens because the perception of color in the human eye, like many other things in our body, is built on the principle of opposition. The retina of the eye has special neurons-opponents: some of them are activated when we see red, and they are also suppressed in green. The same thing happens with the yellow-blue pair. Thus, the colors in red-green and blue-yellow pairs have opposite effects on the same neurons. When the source emits both colors from a pair, their effect on the neuron is compensated, and the person cannot see either of these colors. Moreover, a person is not only unable to see these colors in normal circumstances, but also to imagine them.

Such colors can only be seen as part of a scientific experiment. For example, scientists Hewitt Crane and Thomas Pyantanida from the Stanford Institute in California created special visual models in which stripes of "arguing" shades alternated quickly replacing each other. These images, fixed by a special device at the level of a person's eyes, were shown to dozens of volunteers. After the experiment, people claimed that at a certain point, the boundaries between the shades disappeared, merging into one color that they had never encountered before.

Differences between human and animal vision. Metamerism in photography

Human vision is a three-stimulus analyzer, that is, spectral characteristics colors are expressed in just three values. If the compared fluxes of radiation with different spectral composition produce the same effect on the cones, the colors are perceived as the same.

In the animal kingdom, there are four- and even five-stimulus color analyzers, so colors that are perceived by humans as the same may appear different to animals. In particular, birds of prey see rodent tracks on burrow paths solely through the ultraviolet luminescence of their urine components.
A similar situation develops with image registration systems, both digital and analog. Although for the most part they are three-stimulus (three layers of photographic film emulsion, three types of cells of a digital camera or scanner matrix), their metamerism is different from that of human vision. Therefore, colors perceived by the eye as the same may appear different in a photograph, and vice versa.

Sources

O. A. Antonova, Age anatomy and physiology, Ed .: Higher education, 2006

Lysova N. F. Age anatomy, physiology and school hygiene. Proc. allowance / N. F. Lysova, R. I. Aizman, Ya. L. Zavyalova, V.

Pogodina A.B., Gazimov A.Kh., Fundamentals of gerontology and geriatrics. Proc. Allowance, Rostov-on-Don, Ed. Phoenix, 2007 - 253 p.

Colors not only make our existence brighter, but also determine our mood, influence our thoughts and actions. Distinguishing colors, we better recognize the objects of the world around us, better cope with vital important tasks. Colors also carry information important for communication. Studies of the psychology of color perception clearly describe the effect of color in different life situations.

"A dry theory, my friend, but the tree of life is lushly green." In a good Russian translation of Faust, this textbook phrase sounds exactly like this, but Goethe's original text still looks somewhat different. In the original, this phrase sounds like this: “Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, und griln des Lebens goldener Baum” (J. W. Goethe, Faust, part I, scene IV). theory great poet he calls it not dry, but gray, and he also calls the green tree of life golden. Goethe assigns a specific meaning to each color.

What the brilliant poet, as well as the researcher of color, expressed in verse is still relevant today: colors play a very important role in our life. Colors not only make our existence brighter, but also determine our mood, influence our thoughts and actions. Distinguishing colors, we better recognize the objects of the world around us, better cope with vital tasks. Colors also carry information important for communication. Numerous studies of the psychology of color perception clearly and in detail describe the effect of color in different life situations. This knowledge is also applicable to the development and implementation of retail concepts.

In our study, we will first of all consider the neurophysiological aspects of color perception.

How do we perceive colors

Color is a sensory impression that occurs when wave light stimuli of a certain length (electromagnetic radiation in the range of approximately 180 to 780 nm, the so-called light spectrum) hit the pupil's receptors. From there on neural networks this impulse is transmitted to the brain and begins to be perceived as a color. The perception of the color of surrounding objects is always subjective, since it occurs only in the brain of the beholder. IN physical sense objects have no color, we just perceive them as such.

The physiological aspect of color perception is that in the process of evolution, photoreceptors appeared on the back of the human pupil. When exposed to electromagnetic waves with a length of 380 to 780 nm, they are able to generate a physiological (nervous) signal. There are two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. The rods recognize only the contrast of black and white, are very light sensitive and enable vision in twilight and in the dark. Cones are responsible for color perception. There are three types of cones that perceive short (blue), medium (green), and long (red) wavelengths of color radiation. Each combination of light rays falling on the retina excites these three types of cones in a certain way and gives the corresponding impression of color. nerve impulses, which arise on photoreceptors, are transmitted along the nerve networks to the brain (transduction), where colors are eventually perceived consciously.

Psychology of color perception

Numerous psychological and sociological studies on this topic give a generally uniform picture. On the one hand, the emotional impact of colors is due to the properties of universal objects (blue sky, red blood, yellow sun, green grass, etc.), on the other hand, the influence of culture, and it does not matter whether we are aware of its influence or not. In everyday life, not only painters, designers, graphic artists and other representatives of artistic professions deal with the symbolism of flowers. The emotional impact of colors is reflected, for example, in the language - everyone is familiar with the expressions “like a red rag for a bull”, “people in white coats”, “turn black with anger” and many others. The table gives options for the symbolism of colors and the nature of their impact on humans.

Color/tone	Associations and impact
bright colors	liveliness, brightness
Soft (pastel) colors	Calmness, gentleness
Yellow	Friendliness, cheerfulness, energy, liveliness, "sunny" atmosphere. When used over a large area, it creates a feeling of "cheapness" and causes anxiety
Orange	Warmth, confidence, light. When used over a large area, it also creates a feeling of "cheapness"
Blue	It has a relaxing, calming effect. By itself or in combination with white, blue inspires a feeling of coldness, sterility, and lack of communication skills. Associated with ice, the sea. Color of fidelity
Green	Stability, reliability. It has a refreshing, calming or neutral effect. Associated with nature and spring. color of life
Brown	Creates an atmosphere of comfort and safety. Shades of brown are perceived as pleasant and conducive to communication. Beige color is perceived as pretentious. In addition, it is the color of tradition. He is also credited with the meanings of "poverty", "laziness", "stupidity" and "philistinism"
Red	Activates and excites. Warm color, which has long been considered the paint of passion, provocation, danger. This is the color of extremism, extremes
Pink	This color is much calmer than red. Pink is associated with intimacy and happiness.
Grey	Dignity, confidence. However, this color can have a depressing effect, inspire thoughts of old age. Emotionally neutral
Black	It conveys depth, but can be depressing, suggestive of illness and death (mourning). Also associated with power.
White	Symbolizes innocence, divinity, neutrality, when used on a large area creates a feeling of sterility.

Study Description

In the study of color perception, we conducted two experiments. In the first of these, subjects (10 men and 10 women) were shown differently colored slides and recorded neural activity when perceiving a particular color.

In the second experiment, participants were shown 30 photographs of couples kissing. Among these photographs were both monochrome (painted in different colors - red, yellow, blue, green, black) and color. Each shot appeared in six color variations (randomly, for one second). The subjects were instructed: “You will be shown photos of couples kissing. Some of the photographs are portraits of ordinary people, some are stills from films. Please rate how strong you think the feelings of the people in the photo are (on a scale of 1 to 5).”

During the experiment, we specifically asked to "assess the feelings" of people in the photographs, so that the attention of the participants in the experiment was not directed to the color, nor to their subjective attitude towards it. It was investigated how different shades of colors affect the emotional evaluation of a particular photograph.

Research results

1. Color and transduction. The process of transduction (“translation” of a color stimulus into the language of the brain) during the perception of different colors takes an unequal amount of time and causes neural activity of different intensity in the corresponding areas of the brain, depending on which color is processed.

Prior to the onset of conscious perception (approximately 200-300 ms), green and blue cause stronger neural firing in the frontal lobe of the brain than red. Red, in turn, activates neural activity in the occipital and temporal zones over the same time period, which indicates a strong emotional impact of this color. It has been scientifically proven that the impulses of visual stimuli, having passed through the occipital and temporal zones, immediately enter the limbic system (the location of emotions). The correctness of the saying “Blue is the color of reason, red is the color of passion” has now been proven from the point of view of neurophysiology.

2. Colors and emotions. The influence of colors on the emotional perception of the surrounding world is also explained by the fact that the peak of neural activity during color perception falls on 50-150 ms from the moment the stimulus begins to act (the period of subconscious perception). Thus, colors have a huge impact on cognitive (consciously lived) processes, since during their subconscious processing they cause a peak in neural activity.

3. The impact of colors on conscious perception. In conscious perception (which begins after 300 ms), colors affect neural activity in completely different ways. In other words, the experience gained in the process of sociologization of the subject, as well as his individual color preferences, personal qualities and motivation structure, have a very large influence on the perception of colors.

Exposure to certain colors causes similar reactions in representatives of different cultures. So, the red color affects more intensely than blue and green, a bright contrasting combination of colors is stronger than a dull one. If, for example, facial expressions (biological reaction to a stimulus) are global, it is wrong to talk about the existence of common reactions to different colors: the influence of cultural and social associations is too strong.

4. Color and gender. It is interesting to study and compare neurophysiological reactions in a time period of up to 200 ms (subconscious perception) in men and women. It turned out that neural activity in color perception in women is higher than in men. Since this phenomenon was observed during the period of subconscious perception, it can be assumed that women react more emotionally to colors in general. For men, on the contrary, more strong impact render black and white images.

Arndt Traindl, CEO of Retail Branding AG. The material is published in an adapted translation from English

• Psychology: personality and business

In the process of knowing nature, a person discovered for himself more and more new principles of organizing the world - rhythm, symmetry, proportions, contrast, etc. He was guided by these principles - first unconsciously, then consciously, - transforming the world creating an artificial habitat. Natural and man-made objects of reality gave rise to stable images in his mind, accompanied by certain emotions. These symbolic associative meanings of geometric shapes, lines are taken into account in all activities related to the creation of visual forms. The vertical in the absence of articulations is perceived as something incommensurable, infinite, light, striving upwards. If it has thickenings in the lower part or stands on a horizontal base - as something more stable. The horizontal is associated with reliability, stability, movement, development. The diagonal symbolizes dynamics. Accordingly, a composition built on clear horizontals and verticals gravitates towards stability, static, solemnity, and a composition based on diagonals - to movement, variability, instability. A horizontal composition will look more solid and heavy than a vertical one. The validity of this statement largely depends on the ratio of the sides of the rectangles, and on the placement of material inside them.

Russian artist V.V. Kandinsky, who at one time worked at VKhUTEMAS, and after emigrating to Germany, at the Bauhaus, attributed geometric shapes certain colors and even differences in thermal perception. He saw the horizontal as black and warm; vertical - white, cold; diagonal - red, gray, green; right angle - red; sharp - yellow; stupid - blue.

In painting, it has long been generally accepted that color has the greatest degree of emotional impact. For the first time, an attempt to systematize the meanings of individual colors was made by I.-V. Goethe. “In its most general elementary manifestations, regardless of the structure and forms of the material on the surface of which we perceive it, color has a certain effect on the sense of vision, to which it is mainly confined, and through it on the soul.” Thus, the yellow color makes an unconditionally warm impression and creates a benevolent mood. Blue he considered the color of the shadow - cold and dark. Therefore, blue objects appear more distant. Seriousness and dignity are attributed to red, but also grace and charm. At the same time, Goethe had in mind only pure colors and practically did not take into account either the characteristics of the person who perceives them, or the context of perception.

V.V. Kandinsky offered a more complex view of this problem. He noted the dual effect of color on a person. First of all, this physical impact, in which the eye is fascinated by the beauty of color, or, conversely, experiences severe irritation. This impression is superficial and quickly forgotten when it comes to familiar objects. “But just as the physical sensation of icy cold, if it penetrates deeper, causes deeper feelings and can cause a whole chain of mental experiences, so the superficial impression of color can develop into an experience.” Moreover, this process is largely due to the degree of development of the person himself. But even with low spiritual susceptibility, color is perceived ambiguously. So, light colors attract the eye more than dark ones. Light and warm tones are even more attractive. Objects colored this way appear closer. At the same time, a light but overly poisonous color causes anxiety, and the eye seeks rest in a cold blue or green.

The physical effect of color has been repeatedly confirmed by numerous experiments of physiologists and psychologists. So, M. Derebire gives the following description of the effect of color on the psyche, given by Dr. Podolsky.

Green color- Pain reliever, hypnotic. It affects the nervous system, relieving irritability. Insomnia, fatigue, lowers blood pressure and raises tone.

Blue- antiseptic. It is effective for inflammation and suppuration. sensitive person blue helps more than green, but its "overdose" causes some fatigue and depression.

Orange color stimulates the senses and speeds up the pulsation of the blood without affecting blood pressure. It has a strong stimulating effect, creates a feeling of well-being and fun, but can be tiring.

Yellow It has a stimulating effect on the brain and is therefore effective in mental deficiency.

Red color has warmth. It stimulates the brain, effective in melancholy, but at the same time easily irritating.

Purple increases tissue endurance by affecting the heart, lungs and blood vessels.

However, V.V. Kandinsky noted that with a higher development, this elementary influence turns into a deeper impression. Then we can talk about the second type of color effect on a person.

The mental impact of color causes mental vibration. It is necessary to note the connection between the associative experiences caused by a certain color and its meaning in nature: “For example, red color can cause mental vibration, similar to that which causes fire, since red is at the same time the color of fire. Warm red color has an exciting effect; this color may intensify to a painfully agonizing degree, perhaps also because of its resemblance to flowing blood. The red color in this case awakens the memory of another physical factor, which, of course, affects the soul in a painful way.

The following classification of colors according to their psychological impact on a person is interesting.

1. Stimulating (warm) colors that promote arousal and act as irritants:
   • Red - strong-willed, life-affirming;
   • Orange - warm, cozy;
   • Yellow - contacting, radiant.
2. Disintegrating (cold) colors that muffle irritation:
   • Purple - deep, heavy;
   • Blue - emphasizing the distance;
   • Light blue - leads into space, guiding;
   • Blue-green - emphasizes movement, variability.
3. Pastel colors that subdue pure colors:
   • Pink - gentle, giving the impression of some mystery;
   • Purple - closed, isolated;
   • Pastel green - gentle, soft;
   • Grayish-bluish - restrained.
4. Static colors that can balance, distract from other exciting colors:
   • Pure green - demanding, refreshing;
   • Olive - soothing, softening;
   • Yellow-green - renewing, liberating;
   • Purple - refined, pretentious.
   • Colors of deaf tones that do not cause irritation (gray), extinguish it (white), help to focus (black).
5. Warm dark tones (brown), stabilizing irritation, acting sluggishly, inertly:
   • Ocher - softens the growth of irritation;
   • Brown, earthy - stabilizing;
   • Dark brown - softening excitability.
6. Cool dark colors that isolate and suppress irritation:
   • Dark gray, black and blue, dark green and blue.

Consequently, both the physical and mental effects of color are largely determined by the personal characteristics of the perceiving person. The individual perception of color compositions was later substantiated in the works of the German psychologist M. Luscher, who proved that the state (content of consciousness, emotionality) of the recipient at the time of contact with the object can affect his attitude to the same color.

The choice of color in an advertising message, and even more so in corporate constants, cannot depend on the taste of a designer. On the one hand, this is one of the simplest means of attracting the involuntary attention of the recipient, on the other hand, it is the strongest irritant that can make it difficult to perceive. And the designer needs to find the optimal solution to this contradiction. And then it can be the most unexpected. So, for example, on the color-rich pages of an advertising weekly, the involuntary attention of the reader is more likely to be attracted and black-and-white advertising, in which there is no color as such, will be easily perceived. From this point of view, it is logical to abandon the use of color, including color illustrations, in publications with a low level of printing. Paper quality, alignment inaccuracies can significantly change the color, possibly giving the appeal an undesirable overtone.

Thus, in addition to the independent meaning of color, the following factors influence its choice in advertising:

• The created image;
• Psychological characteristics of the audience, which depend on its socio-demographic composition;
• The nature of the object of advertising;
• Advertising media and color transfer technology.

• General color background and directly contacting colors;
• Illumination of the perceived appeal;
• Its location relative to human perceiving systems.

Features of the psychophysiology of perception determine the different significance of the blank slate zones. There is an ongoing debate in art history about whether the complex process of perceiving a picture can be reduced to the usual perception of a text: from left to right and from top to bottom. Some believe that this is exactly the case, and prove their point of view by analyzing the mirror reflection of paintings by famous artists, conducting experiments on the perception of figures located in different parts of the white sheet. Indeed, depicting successive events, the artist will arrange the elements of the composition horizontally from left to right. A classic example of such a decision is the arrangement of "frames" in a comic book. The same tree, depicted on two sheets, will be perceived differently. On one - closer, on the other - farther from the viewer only because in the first case it is depicted at the left edge, and in the second - at the right edge of the sheet, and in order to “see” it, the eye needs to go some distance, expend certain efforts. In the same way, the conditional priority of the top of the sheet over the bottom was proved. Opponents of this point of view believe that the movement of the viewer's eyes is subordinated to the task of viewing it, and not to the habits of reading a verbal text. The experiments of A. Yarbus proved that the eye is in constant motion, the general direction of which is dictated by the construction of the plot of the picture. As for the heterogeneity of the white sheet, the supporters of this point of view recognize "heavy bottom and light top" only as a predisposition of perception, or a reflex to position in picture frame.

I will color the whole world
in your favorite color...

Human perception of color

If we look around, we will see not only the shape of the surrounding objects, but also various colors. Physicists define color as the wavelength of the electromagnetic range, i.e. the color of an object is a certain objective fact, the ability of an object to absorb and emit light waves.

We distinguish colors thanks to special cells on the retina of the eye, which capture the radiation of the optical range and transmit a signal to the brain, where the “picture” of the object appears. In humans, there are three types of such cells that perceive the blue, green and red parts of the spectrum. light radiation. Therefore, all the colors that we see consist of the sum of the sensations of these three colors.

It would seem that color is a kind of objective fact, a physical phenomenon. However, different colors have different effects on the physical and psychological state of a person. Human perception of color is a complex various processes. These relationships are studied by psychology of color perception.

Article navigation: “Psychology of color perception: how to improve mood with the help of color?”

For example, researchers talk about human genetic memory. For thousands of years, red has been associated with fire, the color of blood, green with surrounding nature, foliage, blue color - with the sky, water, etc. So, gradually the colors began to carry a subconscious message: red - danger, activity, green - appeasement, development, blue - calmness, space.

The physiological effect of colors has also been proven at the experimental level: the red color excites the nervous system, causes an increase in breathing and heart rate. Blue, on the contrary, has an inhibitory effect on our nervous system. The visual pathways in the brain are anatomically associated with various brain structures responsible for the activation and inhibition of the nervous system, for the state of blood flow, and muscle tone.

What does he say psychology of color perception- how interconnected mood and color? Why does color affect our emotions? Of course, the physiological influence of color contributes. Each complex color, which has several shades, combines a different energy of colors, which creates a certain emotional “bouquet”.

But after all, we are also influenced by cultural traditions, the color symbolism of a particular culture. In Western culture, black is associated with mourning, while in the East, mourning clothes are more often white. In the West, white, on the contrary, gradually became a symbol of purity, innocence (remember the white dress of the bride), while in India or China, the bride's dress is traditionally red. Yellow gradually became a symbol of separation, pink and blue - the colors of children's clothes and toys for girls and boys.

We can say that the influence of color on our psychological state consists of physiology, cultural overtones, and our own subjective perception. Color awakens feelings, emotions in us, we may like it or not, evoke memories or associations in our memory, warm up the imagination. We can manage this process ourselves, creating our own “color therapy”, so that colors serve us for our benefit.

In this article, we will give some tips on how to improve your mood and increase your overall energy level by using different colors in your environment.

It's no secret that a typical urban resident of the middle lane sees around for almost half a year, mostly colors of gray shades. Grey sky, gray asphalt, concrete houses. There is no foliage, no blooming flower beds. And people often dress in black and gray clothes for practical reasons. There is a certain "color hunger", which makes a negative contribution to the emotional state and mood. It starts to seem like mood and color around- everything seems to be colorless, gray.

You can trace the relationship between the perception of color and emotions. Remember your feeling, for example, from a festively decorated room, colored light bulbs on a New Year tree, and, as an opposite, some gray monotonous government building.

When do you have emotions, fantasies, new ideas?

As we wrote above, color and emotions are physiologically connected, this is an ancient human reaction to the surrounding reality. The presence of color automatically makes the corresponding parts of the brain work. And the gray scale (it is also called achromatic, i.e. essentially colorless, it contains only degrees of lightness) does not give a person such sensations.

The predominance of achromatic colors around in itself weans us from color sensations. We get used not to see the color, to feel emotions less. There is a feeling of some "frostiness". We are immersed in our thoughts, we make plans, we calculate the possible outcome of our actions. We think with our heads. Feelings are another layer. Feelings will not deceive us, and only they will answer the question of how to make sure that we feel good.

Therefore, it is worth considering how to add bright colors to your life. Here are just a few ideas that do not require large energy or financial investments.

Add color to the interior - for example, put bright pillows on the sofa, hang pictures or a calendar with views of nature or animals on the walls, buy bright towels, tablecloths, napkins. If possible, you can change the curtains or carpet, bed linen. Review the wardrobe - add, for example, a bright scarf, scarf, umbrella. At home, you can dress in brighter colored clothes - it will be pleasant for you and your members. families.

When choosing the colors of your clothes or interior items, listen to yourself. Even if the color is considered beautiful, fashionable and “correct”, but it causes you unpleasant associations, it would be better to refrain from it. If the negative emotional reaction is very strong, then you can turn to a psychologist who can help you understand what is behind these associations and how you can get rid of them. But, in any case, listen to yourself and choose those colors that make you feel good.

That is why we will not give standard advice in this article that it is better to use cold colors in summer, and warm colors in winter, that red and yellow colors in the interior excite, and blue and green - soothe.

These are the general rules human color perception. But it's best if you listen to yourself. For example, when buying wallpaper, ask yourself - how do I like this color? What feelings arise when I look at it? What feelings would I like to have in this room? And find that shade, that pattern that will give you the right emotional feeling.

Let's take a small example. For example, you choose clothes in a store. She suits you, fits well. But how to understand what emotions certain colors of clothing awaken in you?

Try wearing things of different colors and ask yourself - how do I feel in them?

To begin with, you can ask yourself the simplest questions:

• Am I good or bad now?
• Did I get better or worse?

Then try to clarify - for example:

• I got better - how do I get better?
• Do I feel more confident, energetic, or, conversely, relaxed and calm?

Try to practice this. For this, if we give an example with clothes, it is not necessary to buy them. Easy enough to measure. You can treat this as a game, a workout that will gradually awaken new sensations in you and make your life brighter.

If you pay more attention to the colors around you, then it will be easier for you to learn to feel and to a greater extent become conscious. Just ask yourself the question - how do I feel now? Try to listen to yourself.

Bright fruits and vegetables are useful not only in terms of vitamins and vitality, but also in terms of color.

There is a certain opinion of scientists that the color is given by nature for a reason, and products of different colors are useful in their own way.

If you feel apathy, depressive thoughts arise, then remember the bright natural colors.

Go to the market or shop and try to choose fruits and vegetables based on their color. Stop your eyes, admire the natural shades. Even a few bright berries, slices of fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables in your daily menu will give you not only vitamins, but new color sensations that will definitely affect your mood.

In fact, under this specific term, needlework, drawing, and almost any kind of art is hidden. After all, art is also the medicine of our soul, which has proven its healing effect over the centuries. Specialists (art therapists, psychologists) can engage in certain art therapy activities purposefully, achieving the tasks set for the client. But you can use art therapy on your own.

Find the kind of creativity that will become interesting to you, give you positive emotions. Don't be afraid to try a few different arts, don't get attached to "male" and "female" activities.

Of course, if we talk about the psychology of color perception, then in this aspect any kind of fine art, modeling, appliqués, collages will be effective. But you can look wider - use colored yarn, beautiful fabrics, do soap making, scrapbooking. You can just take a walk with the camera, noticing something new around, and then start processing photos in a simple graphics editor.

The main thing is that classes awaken creative energy in you.

Probably, the article could start from this point, because nature is the main source of bright colors and colors. But, at the same time, for the urban dweller of the middle lane, this is not always the case.

And if summer still gives us enough flowers, then in winter it begins to seem that there is simply nowhere to get them from. Of course, the main rule is just to periodically go out of town or go for a walk in the park: in any case, you will see new shades, the play of light and shadow. Even the sky will be its own color every time, a little bit different than yesterday.

Take advantage of good clear weather: if it's a good day, donate house cleaning - it's better to take a walk in nature.

Don't forget the benefits of sunlight. Mood and color are related– and you will definitely feel it in practice. In addition to walks, one can also think about TV programs on relevant topics, as well as such non-standard “encounters” with nature, such as visiting a zoo, an aquarium or a botanical garden (greenhouse).

Small steps every day

Here it would be worth remembering the principle of small steps - every big success or some kind of achievement is made up of small daily actions. Try to do something every day - and one day you will catch yourself that something in your life is changing for the better.

As an illustration, one example from life is recalled.

Marina - mother, wife and good specialist. Quite a successful person by social standards. But at some point, she caught herself thinking that she was living “on the machine”. She spins “like a squirrel in a wheel”, at some point forgetting why all this is needed? And most importantly, she suddenly realized that life had become gray and dull.

She seems to be successful, all is well around. But something is wrong. It is increasingly difficult for her to get out of bed in the morning, and the weekends pass as if they never happened. She realized that she did not enjoy life.

We tried to figure it out, what is she missing, what is she waiting for? And Marina suddenly realized that she seemed to doesn't feel anything. She does something, thinks, plans. But where there are no feelings, there can be no joy, pleasure, satisfaction. Talking about how she lives, Marina often used words - everything is gray, monotonous, uninteresting.

The changes began with a trip to a photo exhibition. Marina suddenly discovered a new world for herself. She saw that photography is somewhat similar to painting, and the photographer does not just make a picture or capture a certain fact, but can convey a mood, an emotion. Seeing the works of the masters of photography, Marina suddenly wanted to do something similar.

The camera was at home, and she began to take it with her more and more often. The world around came to life: the colors of the sunset, and the delicate shades of spring greenery, and the reflection of the blue sky on the surface of the pond in the park appeared in it. The camera became like a window into the world, through which familiar things began to seem different. Colors appeared in the world around.

Now both the road to and from work, and the lunch break began to be filled with new photo experiments. Marina began to pay attention to what surrounds her. She wanted to convey in the photographs not just a picture, but an emotion. Make your photos more expressive. And here, after all, it was worth asking yourself - what emotion do I feel that I want to convey?

It was this that became another key that helped Marina discover the feeling “I” in herself. And life has become more fulfilling. It has become easier for Marina to understand what she wants, which means that it has become easier to move towards her goals and create a life that pleases her. And, interestingly, the family did not remain indifferent to her changes - after all, the wife and mother began to be in a good mood more often.

This is how a trip to a photo exhibition helped our heroine find new colors not only in the world around her, but also in her life.

We hope that our advice will help you add bright colors to your life, which will definitely give you new feelings and emotions. So, your life will become more fulfilling and interesting!

If you have any questions about the article:

You can ask them to our psychologist online:

If for some reason you could not ask a question to a psychologist online, then leave your message (as soon as the first free psychologist appears on the line, you will be contacted immediately at the specified e-mail), or on forum.

Copying site materials without reference to the source and attribution is prohibited!