EFFECTS OF TIME-ORDER ON PREFERENCE JUDGMENTS OF COLORS REPRESENTED BY PATCHES, LABELS, AND THEIR COMBINATION

There are time-order error (TOE) studies for esthetic stimuli, but there seems to be an absence of studies comparing results from same versus different within-pair stimulus representations. In two experiments, participants made paired comparisons of colors represented by patches or labels (e.g., cherry red) (Exp. 1) and of their combination (Exp. 2), indicating within-pair preferences using a six-grade category scale. In Experiment 1, the two representations (patch-patch and label-label) were presented in two separate blocks, and in Experiment 2, the two within-pair orders (patch-label and label-patch) were randomized in one block. The results showed positive TOEs in pairs of patches, but not for labels, and there were positive TOEs in the combined color pairs. In terms of Hellström’s sensation-weighting model, weights were greater for the second color than for the first in the comparisons of patches, labels, as well as combined stimuli. Fechner (1860) first noted and named the phenomenon time-order error (TOE), the tendency to overestimate/underestimate the first of two successively presented stimuli. The TOE phenomenon is a curious one, and since Fechner’s days, many theories have been suggeste