Is “sky” bluer than “grass” is green? Word–color associations dataset for cognitive science
Eldad Keha, Avishai Henik, Eyal Kalanthroff · 2026
Read Is “sky” bluer than “grass” is green? Word–color associations dataset for cognitive science by Eldad Keha, Avishai Henik, Eyal Kalanthroff (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13275740.txt.
Description
Eldad Keha and co-authors offer a 2026 dataset paper for cognitive science, the study of how the mind works. People link many objects to a typical color, such as grass with green. Researchers use these word and color links often, but word lists were usually picked without proper testing.
In a first study, nearly three hundred people rated one hundred forty-three words for their strongest linked color and how strong that link felt. From those ratings the team kept seventy-nine strong words across eleven colors. Two more studies, in Britain and the United States, tested the list with a word and color matching task. Words in matching colors got faster answers, which confirmed the list works. Subjective link strength also matched the size of that effect.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Eldad Keha, Avishai Henik, Eyal Kalanthroff |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 52276 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |