Effect of Memory Color Intensity on P3 Component

Abstract

This study aims to examine how the strength of memory colors affects the ERP, especially focusing on the P3 component. In Experiment 1, seven subjects (mean age : 22.5) were asked to adjust the color of objects until they appeared typical color, in order to measure individual typical colors of a grape, a banana, a man face, and a Coca Cola's logo. Experiment 2 consisted of two visual oddball paradigms: one whose stimuli were typical color objects as a standard stimulus and the opposite color objects to the typical as a target stimuli and the other vice versa. As a result, there were significant differences of typical effects of P3 components (the P3 difference between typical and opposite color) between the face and the grape, the face and the Coca Cola. From these results, the typical effects of a face was suggested to be the most intensive among four stimuli. Previous studies showed that the color sense of primates may be optimally designed in order to distinguish change of complexion. Therefore it was suggested that the memory color of the face is more intensive from the viewpoint of evolution. Although the difference between the grape and the banana was not significant, the typical effects of the banana is greater than that of the grape, which is not inconsistent with the result of Olkkonen et al.. In conclusion, these results suggested that P3 component in an oddball task reflects the memory color intensity.