I agree that Latin American packaging consists of vibrant primary colors to attract the Latin consumers.

Well, let's take the opposite side of the fence: drab, dull, and generally muted shades of earth and grey. Sounds like New York to me, though it's more commonly referred to by my fellow ny'er as "sophisticated" or "restrained."

And though I've never been to any of these places, the same colors come to mind when I think of Newfoundland, Iceland, Greenland (ironically), Russia, China, North Korea, and frankly most of Europe, with the exception of some Mediterranean palaces and, you guessed it, the entire Iberian peninsula.

Must be something in the air.

As noted and researched by Dr. Spock and his counterparts, babies visually recognize and respond more aggressively to bright primary colors than any other color in their early stages of brain development. Could it be that Latin cultures have used these studies when designing their packaging?

The only thing I can relate from Dr. Spocks's studies and Latin packaging is that bright primary colors call more your attention than the rest of colors because they are base colors.

I relate more the environment and culture with the usage of brighter colors in Latin packaging. I don't think that Latin cultures have used this studies when designing packaging, however I find Dr. Spock's studies very interesting.

I think that if most of the colors found in the latino products are basic and bright is because that's what we designers and Ad agencies have done based in our own criteria, but doesn't neccesary means that is what people want to see.
I agree that most latino cultures are warm and loud, so their colors should be, we think...
But that's the culture itself. It doesn't mean that we latino people see everything in those colors and that we don't "understand" other colors or graphics than those.
I think that when we are desingning a graphic identity for a product we should focus more on developing a personality of its own for the product, rather than trying to match what we "think" is the personality of the potential buyer.
Most of the "american, well designed products" are accepted in our latin countries, and even desired for their quality, but they are just "too expensive" to incorporate them in the daily lives of ordinary people. That's why people don't use them.
So, in my opinion, if the latino living in the US has more buying power than back in their countries he could accept a little colder colors and more elaborated designs as long as they product design relies on and communicates a clearly identified personality and concept, and the product itself fulfill the promises made.

Red, green and yellow are fine...I think the more SW colors are more appealing.