208 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



were more sensitive to blue. Thompson (10) mounted 2 mm. squares 

 of red, blue, green and yellow on black and white cards (4X5 inches) 

 and determined the distances at which these colors could be recognized 

 by twenty-five men and twenty-five women. She found that women 

 are in general superior to men in the recognition of colors. In two cases, 

 blue and yellow on the white background, men were superior; in two 

 others, green on white and yellow on black, the results were approxi- 

 mately the same; in the other four combinations women were superior. 

 The superiority of women is most marked in red and in green, while 

 men are superior in yellow. Nelson (7), using a Glan spectropho- 

 tometer and a Welsbach burner placed .43 meters from the instrument, 

 determined the thresholds for the recognition of the colors, red (657 . 5 /*/* 

 approx.), yellow (580/*/*), green (525 /*/*), blue (470 /*/*) and violet 

 (445 /*/*) on twenty men and twenty women. Miss Nelson finds "that 

 women are in general less keen in the recognition of colors" than men. 

 Summarizing the results of her investigation she states that, 



taking into account all three methods of calculating the thresholds, the general conclusion 

 would be that men are clearly superior in the recognition of blue; and women are possibly 

 superior in the recognition of yellow. 



Miss Thompson's and Miss Nelson's results are thus widely divergent. 



Tests on the discrimination of differences in color, the threshold of 

 difference, show greater agreement. Women are in general superior to 

 men in the discriminative sensibility. Nichols (8) found that in arran- 

 ging colors according to saturation women were on the average superior 

 to men in all colors. Lombroso (5) found that women were three times 

 as discriminative as men in arranging the Holmgren wools, a fact which 

 he attributes to their work with embroidery. Luckey (6) , from tests of 

 the indirect color range, was led to doubt the prevailing opinion that 

 women discriminate colors better than men. He found no significant 

 difference in color range or in discriminativeness. Thompson (10), in 

 rough tests on accuracy of arrangement of the Holmgren wools according 

 to shade and tint, found women to be very much better in color dis- 

 crimination than men. The tests were not calculated to determine sex 

 differences with any degree of accuracy. 



Tests of the color sense of children have given no definite results. 



