Lewis 1

Bobbie Lewis
Patricia Williamson
Biology
12 January, 2014
Science Project Report
Objective: What effect does color have on the way images are perceived?
Hypothesis: If a student is shown one card in black and white one day, then the same card in
color the next, they will organize the visual representation differently and see two different
things from the same card.
Research: Rorschach cards were created by Hermann Rorschach. He noticed that children in a
psychiatric hospital all had different patterns of how they perceived the images from a popular
game called Blotto. There were many doubters of the authenticity of the test. They claimed that it
was subjective and projective (Rorschach Inkblot Test). Many thought that images could
only be viewed in their own perspective and that the image did not depict their
personality/feelings. Rorschach died before he could do any more research, but the test was fully
looked though later, in the 50s. It was then that the test became popular and its credibility
increased.
Color perception has been studied for quite a while. Rods and cones are what differentiates color
for us. We have a certain number of them to allow us to see yellows and reds and blues. It has
been shown in the University of Rochester that our perception of color comes from the brain, not
the eye, and that things (i.e. sunglasses, contacts, etc.) can change that perception.
Materials:
Ten Rorschach cards from a reliable source
Procedure:
1. Print out ten Rorschach cards. Five will be colored and the other five will be black
and white.
2. Print out the same colored cards, but in black and white.
3. Number the cards; the colored and corresponding black and white cards should be
numbered the same.
4. Form two groups of five people, one will be your control.
5. Show the controlled group a few (five) black and white Rorschach cards and the
other group a mixture of colored and black and white cards.
6. Wait a day then show the two groups the same thing; change the controlled groups
card numbers, but leave one or two of the previous days cards, and switch the colors of
the other groups cards (in other words, black and white to colored and vice versa),
changing only a few numbers.

Lewis 2
7. Repeat step 5 and 6 for one week

Data, Observations and images:

Controlled group-

Card 1
card 2
card 3
card 4

card 5

Day 1
day 2
Alien bug from
enders game
animal picking up
something
Ant face
Bird thing from
Avatar
Upwards laying cat sitting cat (same)
different people
two people looking looking at each
at each other
other

card 7

card 9
card 10

Diving bird
Cat sitting

People sitting

Alien from super

eight

two people high

fiving

card 10

card 6
card 7
card 8

Animal eating off

ground

Ferret walking
animal
An animal face
(dog?)

card 9

card 5

Bat

Mystical creature

card 8

card 2
card 3
card 4

day 4

Just a bunch of
blobs

card 6

Card 1

day 3

Day 1
Two bats

day 2
Cow skull/ desert
skull

People high fiving

day 3
Two bats

Cow skull
Moth
Moth
Two guns
Two guns
Two bunnies
screaming at each
other
Rabbits screaming
The little mermaid
and sebastian
mirrored
Different skull
Two wombats
Two monkeys
bowling
Two pit bulls

Lewis 3

Card 1
card 2
card 3
card 4
card 5
card 6
card 7

Day 1
Pelvic bone
Bull skull
Moth
Boat
Bunnies (demonic)

day 2
Cow Skull

Bat
Cat rug
Bunnies
Octopus
Deer
Two guys climbing
a mountain
CT scan

card 8
card 9
Two guys high
fiving

card 10
Day 1
Card 1

card 2
card 3
card 4
card 5

day 2

Penguins

Satan
Swallowtailed moth
Cello
Rabbits looking at
each other

Caterpillar
exploding out of
cocoon
Swallowtailed moth

Bob cat rug

Bunnies doing cha
cha

Cello
Two bunnies doing
the chacha

Two sea dragons

doing the hokey
pokey

Two sea serpents

doing hokey pokey
Two pangella
crawling around a
pothole
Praymantis w/
giant ears

card 8
card 9
Russian dancers
high fiving

card 10
Day 1

card 3

day 4

Two caterpillars
playing saxophone

card 7

card 2

day 3
Mumble from
happy feet

Satan

card 6

Card 1

day 3
Pelvic bone

day 2

Dark Audino with

wings
Conch shell and
giratina
evil shadows
Flying rabbit and/or
butterfly

Russian dancing
people
day 3
Upside down
ketchup bottle w/
wings

day 4

Crawling dragon
moth or rabbit with
wings

Lewis 4
card 4

card 5
card 6

Animal skin and

rug or guitar cover Coyote skin
Pelvic bone or
coral

Animal rugskin
Two goddesses
connected by their
butts

Lady w/ legs up in
air
Yue w/ pompoms
Dragon head and
vagina

card 7

Ozais crown
Two animals
climbing the same
cliff
Two falling fairys
and two coy fish

card 8
card 9
Vertebrae or two
people playing
pattycake

card 10

Two granny's
getting feet soaked
playing patty cake

Non-controlled group-

card 6
card 7
card 8

card 9

card 10

Day 1
bird, human rib
cage, monkey
and/or two big
birds
A stag and hippos
bear looking at fish
in water

card 7

card 8

card 9

day 3

day 4

(b+w) Two people

holding hands
Two deers

Birds and bones

(b+w) Two deers

Birds and bones

Stag over water
(b+w) Bear and
fish

Bear w/ fish
(b+w) Two people
Penguin wearing a bending and
bowtie who was
holding onto
shot
something
Two people
jumping towards
Two people fighting each other
Day 1

card 6

day 2

Pelvis or horror
movie face
X-rayed torso
Animal on the
sides in a parallel
universe
Oddly shaped
dead body w/
blood

Bear and fish

(b+w) Two people

touching
Penguin w/ bow tie something
(b+w) Two people
touching
Two people kicking
something
each other

day 2
day 3
(b+w) Crustaceans
dancing around
humans
Angry Alien
(b+w) Mannequin
X-rayed torso
body

day 4

Animal walking
parallel

(b+w) X-rayed
torso
(b+w) Duck men
on top of beach
balls

Lionesque animals
parallel
Two people
(b+w) Weird duck dancing w/ long
men sitting at table fish

Lopsided england
Rearranged and
layered states

Lewis 5
card 10

Creepy alien

Creepy alien

(b+w) Two dogs

rubbing noses
together

card 6
card 7
card 8

Day 1
Hummingbird
Reindeer
Puma

day 2
(b+w) Crab
Reindeer
Puma

day 3
Fishes
(b+w) monkey
Puma

card 9

Black person

(b+w) Gorilla

card 10

Beetle

Fat cat

Black person
(b+w) People high
fiving
Seal

Day 1

day 2

day 3

card 6

Many birds

card 7

Bug face

card 8
card 9

Flower
Two black people
dancing

card 10

Explosion
Day 1

card 6
card 7
card 8
card 9
card 10

Butterfly
Crowd of people
worshiping
Pumas climbing
down
Person swimming
w/ fish
Bug

Creepy Alien
day 4
Sea horse
Deer
(b+w) Puma
(b+w) Another
black person

day 4
Red caterpillar in
(b+w) Lobsters
water w/ birds and
dancing
Dancing flamingos skull
Two animals w/
(b+w) Someone
claw like hands on
Face paint
spilled grey ink
grass
Two tigers or
(b+w) Climbing
wolves
Dragon flyhead
animals
(b+w) Bug about to
(b+w) Monkeys
pinch
Bug w/ pinchers
twerking
Two fat people
(b+w) People high holding a lobster
Explosion
fiving
head
day 2
(b+w) Upside down
butterfly
Crowd of people
worshiping
Pumas climbing
down
(b+w) Dancing
dude
Bug

Lewis 6
Dependent Variable- Non-controlled group that looks at both colored and black and white cards
Independent Variable- Controlled group that looks at only black and white cards
Discussion: The images seen by the subjects are very differentiated depending on the person.
Some subjects tended to have good memory and remembered the images, while others saw a
different image every day. A lot of the time, for the controlled group, the answers were varied,
but it was difficult to track a certain pattern. There were a limited amount of days to conduct the
experiment and the controlled group had to look at twice the amount of cards the non-controlled
group did. This means that the controlled group did not see all of the cards twice, even though
the experiment would need each card to be looked at at least three times. The non-controlled
group had more of a pattern, since they looked at the same cards four times. It seemed that they
would usually recognize the colored cards, but change what they saw when they saw the black
and white version of it. If they saw the colored cards before the black and white ones, they would
remember the colored image until seeing the black and white and change what they saw to that,
even for the future colored images. Unexpectedly, the percentage for black and white images that
were seen differently from colored images was very small. I expected a larger difference in the
images, although, when looking at the data, it seems like there is a big difference from black and
white cards to colored cards.
This experiment allowed me to see that there is a bit of a difference between how we view
colored and black and white images. Further research on this experiment and the psychology of it
could bring benefits to our society. This could possibly help with advertising and teaching
methods. Maybe new ways of learning by working with color could come into play. For the
future, though, this experiment will have to be worked on for quite a long time. I would
definitely work on this for a longer experiment time if I did this again.
Conclusion: My data suggests that my hypothesis was true that our perception of images depends
on color, just on the percentages. The percentages for different viewed images was higher for the
color vs. black and white than the only black and white images.
Works Cited:
"Rorschach Inkblot Test." Historical Development of Inkblot Technique. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan.
2014.
"Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer: Physics of Light and Color - Human Vision and
Color Perception." Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer: Physics of Light and
Color - Human Vision and Color Perception. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
"Eye, Brain, and Vision." Eye, Brain, and Vision. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. .
University of Rochester. "Color Perception Is Not In The Eye Of The Beholder: It's In The
Brain."ScienceDaily, 26 Oct. 2005. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
"Rorschach Test." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 Nov. 2014. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.