Alexandra Grandison (formerly Clifford)University of Surrey · School of Psychology
Alexandra Grandison (formerly Clifford)
BSc, PhD
About
19
Publications
7,898
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
602
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Additional affiliations
March 2015 - present
August 2010 - March 2015
Education
October 2005 - September 2009
September 2000 - June 2004
Publications
Publications (19)
Prior claims that color categories affect color perception are confounded by inequalities in the color space used to equate same- and different-category colors. Here, we equate same- and different-category colors in the number of just-noticeable differences, and measure event-related potentials (ERPs) to these colors on a visual oddball task to est...
Categorical perception (CP) of colour is demonstrated by faster and more accurate discrimination of colours that cross a category boundary than equivalently spaced colours from the same colour category. Despite a plethora of behavioural research investigating the origin and nature of colour CP, the underlying mechanisms involved in the effect are s...
Claims of universality pervade color preference research. It has been argued that there are universal preferences for some colors over others (e.g., Eysenck, 1941), universal sex differences (e.g., Hurlbert & Ling, 2007), and universal mechanisms or dimensions that govern these preferences (e.g., Palmer & Schloss, 2010). However, there have been su...
Category training can induce category effects, whereby color discrimination of stimuli spanning a newly learned category boundary is enhanced relative to equivalently spaced stimuli from within the newly learned category (e.g., categorical perception). However, the underlying mechanisms of these acquired category effects are not fully understood. I...
Colour preference has been related to affective responses to colour-associated objects (Palmer & Schloss, 2010). In other domains, preference for a given stimulus merely increases as a result of repeated, brief and neutral exposure to that stimulus, and these ‘mere exposure’ effects also generalise to stimuli which share similar characteristics to...
It has been proposed that color preference is largely governed by the two cone-opponent processes that underlie sensory encoding of color, and that robust sex differences in the weighting of these ‘biological components’ of color preference evolved in line with sex differences in the behavioural use of color vision (Hurlbert & Ling, 2007). In suppo...
There is indirect evidence that categorical colour perception (better discrimination of colours from different categories than those from the same category) can be learned. For instance, CP can be induced across a newly learned category boundary (Özgen & Davies 2002). Here we replicate and extend Özgen and Davies's category learning study to try an...
Categorical perception (CP) of color is the faster and/or more accurate discrimination of colors from different categories than equivalently spaced colors from the same category. Here, we investigate whether color CP at early stages of chromatic processing is independent of top-down modulation from attention. A visual oddball task was employed wher...
The origin of color categories has been debated by psychologists, linguists and cognitive scientists for many decades. Here, we present the first electrophysiological evidence for categorical responding to color before color terms are acquired. Event-related potentials were recorded on a visual oddball task in 7-month old infants. Infants were show...
The aim of this investigation was to examine the time course and the relative contributions of perceptual and post-perceptual processes to categorical perception (CP) of color. A visual oddball task was used with standard and deviant stimuli from same (within-category) or different (between-category) categories, with chromatic separations for withi...
Categorical perception (CP) of color is the faster and more accurate discrimination of two colors from different categories than two colors from the same category, even when same- and different-category chromatic separations are equated. In adults, color CP is lateralized to the left hemisphere (LH), whereas in infants, it is lateralized to the rig...
In adults, visual search for a colour target is facilitated if the target and distractors fall in different colour categories (e.g. Daoutis, Pilling, & Davies, in press). The present study explored category effects in children's colour search. The relationship between linguistic colour categories and perceptual categories was addressed by comparing...
Categorical perception of color is shown when colors from the same category are discrim-inated less easily than equivalently spaced colors that cross a category boundary. The current experiments tested various models of categorical perception. Experiment 1 tested for categor-ical responding in 2-to 4-year-olds, the age range for the onset establish...
Projects
Projects (2)
We have three main objectives:
1. to demonstrate how the baffling gender systems of natural languages arise;
To succeed finally in this great challenge of linguistics, uncovering the origin of gender, requires finding the ideal field-site
and then combining linguistic typology with psycholinguistic techniques. Only then can we give a full picture of the stages of
development of gender systems. We have identified six case study Oceanic languages, which show intriguing signs of
developing properties of grammatical gender. We have designed experiments that can demonstrate the rise of gender,
showing how these systems develop along a grammaticalisation path from noun to classifier to gender. Each language in
our sample exhibits characteristics of the different stages of grammaticalisation which requires a focussed investigation.
2. to show the nature of these systems as they survive;
The best hypothesis for the origin of gender systems is in semantically transparent types of classifiers. These are replaced
by conventionalised, less obviously useful, gender systems. Our experiments will establish a sound empirical base for
studying the nature of emerging gender systems, by compiling a representative body of examples. We need to establish
how and why languages relinquish a useful, meaningful classificatory system, and adopt a rigid, apparently unmotivated
gender system. These transitional systems offer vital evidence as to the nature of established gender systems.
3. and thus to shed light on human categorisation.
While linguists would be delighted to see success with objectives 1 and 2, psychologists want to know what these varying
systems can tell us about human categorisation. This is a potentially soluble question now that psycholinguistic techniques,
such as eye-tracking, can be used in remote fieldwork locations. The comparative results of the experiments will allow us to
establish whether gender or classifiers are the most optimal categorisation system in terms of cognitive load and efficiency.
The results will also be used to formulate a category training experiment with English speakers to ascertain the relative
cognitive cost of each system.
