[揽瓜阁精读] 8. Language influences color perception

iririlua

summary point: the article introduces a theory about the interconnection between how we call colors and how we perceive them, along with relevant experiment to support the theory.

P1:
Key topic at hand: what we call a color influences how we perceive it;
key thesis: if the terms are different to describe colors, then the ability to distinguish the difference between colors increase.

P2:
introduce an experiment without distraction from memorization and linguistic ability (three squares in a triangle to match)
Result: Russians are quicker at distinguishing colors in different categories (with different names) than in the same category (with the same name) but English speakers do not have this difference (mainly because of the context that blue is blue and there's no other terms within). In addition, it is not due to color perception alone since English speakers and Russian speakers can place the border between dark and light shade blue at the same point.

P3: Explanation
the advantage is caused by the language center (calling colors in different terms help distinguish) because when the distraction was designed visually, the advantage still existed but when the distractions was designed verbally, the advantages became disadvantages.

P4: Remaining questions
Not clear how the language processing center involves in decision making: whether it participates directly or waits for the cues from other parts when the decision is made. Regardless, fine-scale color distinguishing ability is related to how we call colors.