Color categorical perception in children with different profiles of hemispheric asymmetry

As part of the general problem of linguistic determination of color perception, we studied peculiarities of categorical color perception in children with different profiles of asymmetry. The basic hypothesis is that the left-handedness affects the cross-categorical discrimination of colors. The study involved two groups of children, an experimental group of 93 left-handed children and a control group of 104 right-handed children. The basic experimental procedure of visual search was based on a comparison of times of cross-categorical and intra-categorical discrimination of colors in three color ranges (computer version) simultaneously. Our findings suggest a less pronounced effect of categorical perception of color in left-handers compared with right-handers, which is probably due to the lesser lateralization of language functions in left-handers. In addition, a tendency to reduction of the differences in cross- and intra-categorical discrimination of colors with increasing age of the subjects. No differences in the expression of the categorical effects upon presentation of stimuli in the right and left half-field of view, i.e. in the processing of categorical color information in structures of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, were identified.

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