Do you see what I see?

Kyoto, Japan -- As a child, did it ever occur to you that your perception of color differed from that of others? It's quite common to have this thought, but it turns out that the human color experience may be more universal than we previously believed.

In psychology and neuroscience, the relationship between subjective experience, such as how we perceive color, and physical brain activity has remained an unresolved problem. Furthermore, due to their limited language abilities, studying conscious experiences in children has posed a particular challenge.

This inspired a team of researchers at Kyoto University to establish a methodology for evaluating conscious experiences, or qualia, in young children. Focusing on their experience with color, the team developed a touch panel interface that requires only minimal language skills, making it accessible for children as young as 3 years old.

"We were motivated by fundamental questions about how children perceive and experience the world," says corresponding author Yusuke Moriguchi. He points out that there was no established methodology to evaluate these experiences in young children who cannot fully articulate their perceptions.

Using their newly-developed interface, the researchers chose nine distinct colors and asked participants to rate color similarities on a four-point scale from "very similar" to "very dissimilar" Participants included Japanese children aged 3–12 and Chinese children aged 6–8, along with Japanese adults. They also conducted the tests in different environments, both online and in-person, and utilized either a computer or a touch screen for each test.

The results revealed that young children experience colors in nearly the same way as adults, and that the structure of how children experience colors remains remarkably consistent across age groups and cultures. They also observed slight age-related differences for certain color combinations, as children's judgments gradually came to resemble adult patterns as they grow older.

"We were surprised to observe the consistency of color qualia structures across ages, despite known significant changes in children's understanding and use of color names with age," says Moriguchi. The researchers also did not expect the experimental environment to have such minimal influence on the results, which demonstrates the robustness of their approach.

Further studies that involve children from more diverse cultural backgrounds and that utilize more colors are necessary. Still, these findings suggest that the human color experience may transcend age and culture, and also unlocks new possibilities for studying subjective experiences across developmental stages.

"Our study provides a new methodology for scientifically investigating conscious experiences in young children," continues Moriguchi. This could contribute to developing better parenting and educational approaches based on children's perspectives, and a better understanding in general of how children perceive the world around them.

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The paper "Comparing color qualia structures through a novel similarity task in young children versus adults" appeared on 11 March 2025 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, with doi: 10.1073/pnas.2415346122.

About Kyoto University

Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels complements several research centers, facilities, and offices around Japan and the world. For more information, please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en