Color task

Color tasks are tasks that involve the recognition of colors. Color tasks can be classified according to how the color is interpreted. Cole describes four categories of color tasks:

• Comparative – When multiple colors must be compared, such as with mixing paint
• Connotative – When colors are given an implicit meaning, such as red = stop
• Denotative – When identifying colors, for example by name, such as “where is the yellow ball?”
• Aesthetic – When colors look nice – or convey an emotional response – but don’t carry explicit meaning

Earlier classification of color tasks did not attempt to be comprehensive, and mainly differentiated between color matching/ordering, pseudoisochromatic plates and color-naming. In Cole's definitions, the latter would be denotative color tasks and the others would be comparative color tasks.