Kandinsky's questionnaire revisited
Fundamental correspondence of basic colors and forms?
Publication date
2002-12
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Organisational unit
Institut für Allgemeine Psychologie, Universität Leipzig
Publisher
Sage Publishing
Series or journal
Perceptual and motor skills
ISSN
Periodical volume
95
Periodical issue
3
First page
903
Last page
913
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
Nein
Language
English
Abstract
Kandinsky postulated a fundamental correspondence between color and form. Using a variant of his historical questionnaire, 200 (92 men, 108 women) nonartist university students were divided into two groups and asked to assign the colors yellow, red, and blue to the triangle, square, and circle in a one-to-one fashion. One group worked under a mere color-form correspondence instruction, the other under an aesthetic-correspondence one, i.e., this latter group was asked to make the most beautiful color-form assignment. Participants' assignments showed a clear, stable group preference. About half of the students assigned red to the triangle, blue to the square, and yellow to the circle, respectively. This preferred assignment stood regardless of variation in instruction. Frequently, world knowledge associations were stated in the rationale for an assignment choice. The red triangle resembled a traffic sign, a warning triangle, and the yellow circle resembled the sun. Kandinsky's assignment, however, was the least preferred one. It is argued that color-form assignments as well as the motivation to produce them are due to a multitude of factors. World knowledge, education, historical change, societal, group-specific, and individual leitmotifs are all influences.
Version
Published version
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