Investigation of Memory Colours across Cultures

Memory colours have been extensively investigated. They are important for different image applications, such as colour image reproduction. However, it is possible memory colours vary according to different cultures. The present experiments were conducted to investigate 22 memory colours, which are divided into three types: 12 common colours such as vegetables, fruits and flowers, 6 natural colours such as sky blue, grass, and skin colours, and 4 culture specific colours. Each colour was assessed by 25 Chinese observers and 30 German observers in each country. The inter-observer variations between two groups were compared in terms of mean of CIELAB colour differences in terms of MCDM measure and tolerance ellipses. Also, the colour centers are plotted in CIELAB a*b* diagram to show the culture differences. The intention here is to establish a methodology to study memory colours across different countries based on homogeneous colour patches.