People perceive colors categorically. But what is the role of the environment (or nurture)—specifically, language—in color perception? The effects of language on the way people categorize and perceive colors have been considered to be minimal, but recent evidence suggests that language may indeed change color perception. Speakers of languages with different color-name repertoires show differences in the way they perceive color. Research shows that categorical effects on color perception can be induced through laboratory training and suggests language can similarly change color perception through the mechanism of perceptual learning.
FahleM.PoggioT. (Eds.). (2002). Perceptual learning. London: MIT Press.
2.
HardinC.L.MaffiL. (Eds.). (1997). Color categories in thought and language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
3.
KaiserP.K.BoyntonR.M. (Eds.). (1996). Human color vision. Washington, DC: Optical Society of America.
4.
BerlinB.KayP. (1969). Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.
5.
ÖzgenE.DaviesI.R.L. (1998). Turkish color terms: Tests of Berlin and Kay's theory of color universals and linguistic relativity. Linguistics, 36, 919–956.
6.
ÖzgenE.DaviesI.R.L. (2002). Acquisition of categorical color perception: A perceptual learning approach to the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 477–493.
7.
RobersonD.DavidoffJ. (2000). The categorical perception of colours and facial expressions: The effect of verbal interference. Memory & Cognition, 28, 977–986.
8.
RobersonD.DaviesI.DavidoffJ. (2000). Color categories are not universal: Replications and new evidence in favor of linguistic relativity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 369–398.
9.
WhorfB.L. (1956). Language, thought and reality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.(Original work published 1940)
