Abstract: The subject of the study is the relationship between the level of anxiety and color associations with anthropologically significant concepts. The goal is an experimental test of the hypothesis that anxiety affects the structure, density and components of the color association system. The experiment involved 100 people (23 men and 77 women) aged 17 to 24 years (mean age 19.71, SD = 1.72). Their anxiety level was established using the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) as adapted by V. G. Norakidze. Depending on the total score on the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, we formed 3 groups for participants with low, medium and high anxiety levels. The palette of the experiment included 9 color samples of the NCS natural color system, which were divided into "warm" and "cold". The participants compared the color samples of the palette with 26 anthropologically significant concepts. First, the experiment showed that the anxiety level related to the associative group of preferred colors: as the anxiety level increased, the number of "warm" colors significantly decreased, and "cold" ones increased. Second, in all three groups, "red" and "gray" associations dominated, the differences in the frequency of other selected hues, with the exception of red, blue-green and yellow-green, were quite weak. Third, a correlation between salient individual chromatic characteristics in the color association structure and the anxiety level was revealed: in groups with a higher anxiety level, we found a reduction in the number of connections and an increase in the dominance of individual associations. This study clarifies the relationship between the anxiety level and color cognition, primarily it concerns the color representation of a person’s own state and mood. The research can be continued through the study of other chromatic characteristics, cross-cultural and sociocultural specifics.

Abstract: The article considers conceptual ideas of color categorization as a cultural practice. Color categorization is the process of dividing the color continuum into discrete color groups (color categories) and fixing them in the human mind through the cutural sign system. In modern color studies, this process is viewed from the ecocentric perspective. According to ecocentrism, humans and other living being are equal parts of nature, and they should coexist in harmony and peace. In this regard, it becomes important to search for ecological motivation not only in the human body, but also in human activity, especially in cultural practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze conceptual ideas of color categorization from the ecocentric perspective.  The systematization of the indicated conceptual ideas allowed us to identify three key directions based on ecological motivation: (1) nature-centered, (2) body-oriented and (3) socio-cultural. The mentioned directions are formed on the basis of such concepts as "environment", "corporeality" and "sociality", respectively. Acting as the main factors that determine the content and structure of color categories, environment, human body and culture form the main vector of color categorization. The environment comprises a set of objects with chromatic characteristics. They are the material for color categorization, and their configuration sets examples of color combinations. The physiological and biological features of the human body determine the process of color perception and its cognitive processing resulting into color categories. As the color categories become a part of human activity, their cultural semantics is created in the form of cultural meanings and connotations.