Categorical Perception Of Color Research Articles

Sensory perception is a holistic inference process.

Sensory perception is widely considered an inference process that reflects the best guess of a stimulus feature based on uncertain sensory information. Here we challenge this reductionist view and propose that perception is rather a holistic inference process that operates not only at the feature but jointly across all levels of the representational hierarchy. We test this hypothesis in the context of a commonly used psychophysical matching task in which subjects are asked to report their perceived orientation of a test stimulus by adjusting a probe stimulus (method-of-adjustment). We introduce a holistic matching model that assumes that subjects' reports reflect an optimal match between the test and probe stimulus, both in terms of their inferred feature (orientation) and also their higher level representation (orientation category). Validation against several existing data sets demonstrates that the model accurately and comprehensively predicts subjects' response behavior and outperforms previous models both qualitatively and quantitatively. Moreover, the model generalizes to other feature domains and offers an alternative account for categorical color perception. Our results suggest that categorical effects in sensory perception are ubiquitous and can be parsimoniously explained as optimal behavior based on holistic sensory representations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Contingent capture by color is sensitive to categorical color perception.

Contingent capture (CC) theory postulates that attention can only be captured by top-down matching stimuli. Although the contingent capture of attention is a well-known and thoroughly studied phenomenon, there is still no consensus on the characteristics of the top-down template which guides the search for colors. We tried to replicate the classical contingent capture effect on color (Experiment 1) and then added linguistic processing to this perceptual effect (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, attention was indeed captured by the cues of the same color as the target, while the cues of different colors were successfully ignored. In Experiment 2, the cue color was never identical to the target color but would either belong to the same linguistic category or not (i.e., linguistic matching and linguistic nonmatching cues). In both cases, cues were made to be equally perceptually distant from the target. Although, attention was captured by both cue types, the degree of capture was significantly higher for linguistic matching cues. Our research replicated the classic contingent capture effect but on color, and also demonstrated the effect of color categories in the search task. In short, we demonstrated the effect of color categories in the search task. Results show that the template for color search contains physical characteristics of color, as well as information about color category names.

Relationship between color appearance evaluation and categorical color responses of small stimuli in central and near peripheral visual fields

AbstractThe appearance of color stimuli can be measured psychophysically using two major techniques: (1) elementary color naming and (2) categorical color naming. On the relation between the two naming techniques, a network model (published 20 years ago) autonomously labels colors without retrieving color names from a database and has the flexibility to adapt to individual differences or observing environments. However, this network model has not been recently applied in this context as few works have focused on two types of color naming experiments using the same observers and conditions, mainly because most studies focused either on continuous changes in color appearance or on categorical color perception and did not need to employ both techniques. In our previous study, new datasets of hue and saturation judgments with whiteness and blackness evaluations were obtained. The evaluation of these datasets included elementary color naming and categorical color naming using 11 basic color terms (BCTs) with 0.5°‐diameter stimuli presented at the center and 12 locations along the horizontal and vertical meridians in the visual field for three observers. The feasibility of applying the model to our new datasets in the center and near periphery has to be examined before utilizing the model for various applications. Gain factor values for each categorical color response (CCR) were individually optimized, and the same combination of gain factors were used for all locations for each observer. The results of the chi‐square goodness‐of‐fit test indicated that the response distribution estimated by the model (color names and “undefined”) was not significantly different from the experimental data obtained in 35 out of 39 conditions. The overall average of the correct estimation was 77%. The high estimation obtained from the same gain factor values is indicative of an invariant relationship between the two naming techniques, with up to 20° eccentricity. It also shows the model's plausibility in explaining individual differences among normal observers.

Elucidating the Common Basis for Task-Dependent Differential Manifestations of Category Advantage: A Decision Theoretic Approach.

Cross-category hues are differentiated easier than otherwise equidistant hues that belong to the same linguistic category. This effect is typically manifested through both accuracy and response time gains in tasks with a memory component, whereas only response times are affected when there is no memory component. This raises the question of whether there is a common generative process underlying the differential behavioral manifestations of category advantage in color perception. For instance, within the framework of noisy evidence accumulation models, changes in accuracy can be readily attributed to an increase in the efficacy of perceptual evidence integration (after controlling for threshold setting), whereas changes in response time can also be attributed to shorter nondecisional delays (e.g., due to facilitated signal detection). To address the latent decision processes underlying category advantage across different behavioral demands, we introduce a decision-theoretic perspective (i.e., diffusion decision model) to categorical color perception in three complementary experiments. In Experiment 1, we collected data from a binary color naming task (1) to determine the green-blue boundary in our sample and (2) to trace how parameter estimates of interest in the model output change as a function of color typicality. In Experiments 2 and 3, we used same-different task paradigms (with and without a memory component, respectively) and traced the category advantage in color discrimination in two parameters of the diffusion decision model: nondecision time and drift rate. An increase in drift rate predominantly characterized the category advantage in both tasks. Our results show that improved efficiency in perceptual evidence integration is a common driving force behind different manifestations of category advantage.

Testosterone, signal coloration, and signal color perception in male zebra finch contests.

Many animals use assessment signals to resolve contests over limited resources while minimizing the costs of those contests. The carotenoid-based orange to red bills of male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are thought to function as assessment signals in male-male contests, but behavioral analyses relating contest behaviors and outcomes to bill coloration have yielded mixed results. We examined the relationship between bill color and contests while incorporating measurements of color perception and testosterone (T) production, for an integrative view of aggressive signal behavior, production, and perception. We assayed the T production capabilities of 12 males in response to a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) challenge. We then quantified the initiation, escalation, and outcome of over 400 contests in the group, and measured bill color using calibrated photography. Finally, because signal perception can influence signal function, we tested how males perceive variation in bill coloration, asking if males exhibit categorical perception of bill color, as has been shown recently in female zebra finches. The data suggest that males with greater T production capabilities than their rivals were more likely to initiate contests against those rivals, while males with redder bills than their rivals were more likely to win contests. Males exhibited categorical color perception, but individual variation in the effect of categorical perception on color discrimination abilities did not predict any aspects of contest behavior or outcomes. Our results are consistent with the hypotheses that T plays a role in zebra finch contests and that bill coloration functions as an aggressive signal. We suggest future approaches, based on animal contest theory, for how links among signals, perception, and assessment can be tested.

Categorical Perception of Color in Tracking Depends on Language

Categorical Perception of Color in Tracking Depends on Language

The Visual World of Infants: with a focus on categorical color perception and pre-constancy vision

The Visual World of Infants: with a focus on categorical color perception and pre-constancy vision

Cathodal tDCS stimulation of left anterior temporal lobe eliminates cross-category color discrimination response time advantage

The linguistic category-advantage in color perception refers to better discrimination performance for stimuli that belong to different categories (e.g., green vs. blue) than equidistant stimuli from the same category (e.g., blue). Despite the robust nature of category-advantage in color perception, the related cognitive and neural mechanisms are not fully understood. Some views attribute this effect to early alteration of visual processing of color while others attribute it to post-perceptual conceptual processing. The current study investigated the causal role of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), as a post-perceptual semantic hub, in categorical color perception. We modulated the activity of the left ATL via cathodal tDCS or sham stimulation (within-subject) while participants were discriminating between successive presentations of color patches. Without stimulation, we found a category-advantage effect in both accuracy and response times. The inhibition of left ATL eliminated the category-advantage effect in terms of RTs but not accuracies. Our results point at the causal role of ATL in categorical color perception and provide indirect support for a post-perceptual processing account of this robust phenomenon.

颜色范畴知觉效应发生在大脑两半球：来自纳西族和汉族的证据

颜色范畴知觉效应发生在大脑两半球：来自纳西族和汉族的证据

Tracking within-category colors is easier: Color categories modulate location processing in a dynamic visual task

The categorical perception (CP) of color describes the phenomenon that colors across categories (e.g., blue and green) are more discriminable than within-category colors (e.g., green) even when the perceptual distance is controlled. While most studies are conducted in a static visual scene, the current study investigated the effect of color categories when tracking multiple colored objects within two experiments. The targets or distractors were either from the same color category or from two different categories, and the perceptual distance was controlled across all conditions. We found that location tracking was facilitated when the targets or the distractors shared the same color category in the tracking task, which required location tracking and color memorization at the same time, compared with when they were from two different categories (Experiment 1). By contrast, when location tracking was the sole demand and no explicit color processing was required, the target CP effects, but not the distractor CP effects, persisted (Experiment 2). We conclude that color categories can dynamically modulate preattention visual processing when color working memory is involved, but that attention is necessary to produce CP effects when color is irrelevant to the task.

Hearing words changes color perception: Facilitation of color discrimination by verbal and visual cues.

As part of learning some languages, people learn to name colors using categorical labels such as "red," "yellow," and "green." Such labeling clearly facilitates communicating about colors, but does it also impact color perception? We demonstrate that simply hearing color words enhances categorical color perception, improving people's accuracy in discriminating between simultaneously presented colors in an untimed task. Immediately after hearing a color word participants were better able to distinguish between colors from the named category and colors from nearby categories. Discrimination between typical and atypical category members was also enhanced. Verbal cues slightly decreased discrimination accuracy between two typical shades of the named color. In contrast to verbal cues, a preview of the target color, an arguably more informative cue, failed to yield any changes to discrimination accuracy. The finding that color words strongly affect color discrimination accuracy suggests that categorical color perception may be caused by color representations being augmented in-the-moment by language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

色觉疲劳、语义饱和对颜色范畴知觉的即时影响

色觉疲劳、语义饱和对颜色范畴知觉的即时影响

Red is the new orange: Nonlinguistic categorical color perception.

Caves et al. (2018) demonstrated categorical perception in zebra finches for the orange-red color category that conveys information about male fitness. This result implies that categorical color perception does not necessarily have linguistic origins, as has been previously believed.

Reproducibility of visual-field asymmetries: Nine replication studies investigating lateralization of visual information processing

Numerous behavioral studies suggest that the processing of various types of visual stimuli and features may be more efficient in either the left or the right visual field. However, not all of these visual-field asymmetries (VFAs) have been observed consistently. Moreover, it is typically unclear whether a failure to observe a particular VFA can be ascribed to certain characteristics of the participants and stimuli, to a lack of statistical power, or to the actual absence of an effect. To increase our understanding of lateralization of visual information processing, we have taken a rigorous methodological and statistical approach to examine the reproducibility of various previously reported VFAs. We did so by performing (near-)exact replications of nine representative previous studies, aiming for sufficient power to detect the effects of interest, and taking into consideration all relevant dependent variables (reaction times and error rates). Following Bayesian analyses –on our data alone as well as on the combined evidence from the original and replication studies– we find precise and reliable evidence that support VFAs in the processing of faces, emotional expressions, global and local information, words, and in the distribution of spatial attention. In contrast, we find less convincing evidence for VFAs in processing of high and low spatial frequencies. Finally, we find no evidence for VFAs in categorical perception of color and shape oddballs, and in the judgments of categorical and coordinate spatial relations. We discuss our results in the light of their implications for theories of visual lateralization.

Bi-lateralized Whorfian effect in color perception: Evidence from Chinese Sign Language

Abstract Converging behavioral and neural studies have shown a right visual field (RVF) advantage on language's effect on color categorical perception (the Whorfian effect). But little is known about the effect of sign language on deaf people's perception of color categories. To examine whether this lateralized effect also occurs in sign language systems, both behavioral and electrophysiological studies were conducted using visual search and oddball tasks respectively. The visual search results revealed that reaction times to targets were faster when the target and the paired distractor colors were easy to sign than when they were hard to sign, both in RVF and left visual field (LVF), and further, the LVF Whorfian effect was disrupted when participants performed the spatial interference secondary task. In the oddball task, the amplitude of the vMMN component evoked by the within-category deviant was significantly smaller than that evoked by the between-category deviant when displayed in either the RVF or the LVF. Both the behavioral and electrophysiological findings show that the language of the deaf affects their color perception bi-laterally, which suggests that the nature of language decides the pattern of the Whorfian effect.

Change of color memory based on categorical color perception

Change of color memory based on categorical color perception

Is the Lateralized Categorical Perception of Color a Situational Effect of Language on Color Perception?

This study investigated whether and how a person's varied series of lexical categories corresponding to different discriminatory characteristics of the same colors affect his or her perception of colors. In three experiments, Chinese participants were primed to categorize four graduated colors-specifically dark green, light green, light blue, and dark blue-into green and blue; light color and dark color; and dark green, light green, light blue, and dark blue. The participants were then required to complete a visual search task. Reaction times in the visual search task indicated that different lateralized categorical perceptions (CPs) of color corresponded to the various priming situations. These results suggest that all of the lexical categories corresponding to different discriminatory characteristics of the same colors can influence people's perceptions of colors andthat color perceptions can be influenced differently by distinct types of lexical categories depending on the context.

Race and Color: Two Sides of One Story? Development of Biases in Categorical Perception.

Categorical perception is a phenomenon that leads people to group stimuli into categories instead of perceiving their natural continua. This article reviews the literature of two biases connected with categorical perception: categorical color perception and the other-race effect. Although these two phenomena concern distant targets (colors and faces) and imply different biases (one attentional, one mnemonic), they share at least three commonalities. First, they both involve the chunking of continuous dimensions into categories. Second, adult categories are shaped by cultural processes. Third, infants' discrimination performance seems universal and guided by perception. In this article, it is proposed to look for a common developmental mechanism that clarifies the shift from a perceptual to a sociocognitive knowledge of the environment. New perspectives are discussed.

Categorical perception for red and brown.

Recent studies suggest that the widely accepted evidence in support of categorical perception of color may be a confound of effects due to low-level sensory mechanisms that are unrelated to color categories. To reveal genuine category effects, we investigated the category boundary least prone to spurious effects of low-level mechanisms: the boundary between red and brown. We tested for low-level sensory and high-level cognitive effects of categories on color discrimination, while carefully controlling potential factors of color vision that are not related to color categories. First, we established the red-brown boundary through a naming task and measured just-noticeable differences (JNDs) for colors across the boundary. If low-level sensitivity to color differences was categorical, JNDs should decrease toward the boundary. However, this was not the case. Second, we measured performance in terms of response times and error rates in a speeded discrimination task with color pairs that were equalized in discriminability based on the empirical JNDs. There was a boost of performance (lower response times and error rates) for identifying color differences in equally discriminable color pairs, when the colors crossed the boundary. Given the particularity of the red-brown boundary, these results prove that the observed effects were due to color categories rather than low-level visual mechanisms. These findings support the idea that category effects are due to a shift of attention to the linguistic distinction between categories, rather than being a pure product of perception. These category effects do not depend on the hemispheric lateralization of language. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cortical response to categorical color perception in infants investigated by near-infrared spectroscopy

Perceptual color space is continuous; however, we tend to divide it into only a small number of categories. It is unclear whether categorical color perception is obtained solely through the development of the visual system or whether it is affected by language acquisition. To address this issue, we recruited prelinguistic infants (5- to 7-mo-olds) to measure changes in brain activity in relation to categorical color differences by using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). We presented two sets of geometric figures to infants: One set altered in color between green and blue, and the other set altered between two different shades of green. We found a significant increase in hemodynamic responses during the between-category alternations, but not during the within-category alternations. These differences in hemodynamic response based on categorical relationship were observed only in the bilateral occipitotemporal regions, and not in the occipital region. We confirmed that categorical color differences yield behavioral differences in infants. We also observed comparable hemodynamic responses to categorical color differences in adults. The present study provided the first evidence, to our knowledge, that colors of different categories are represented differently in the visual cortex of prelinguistic infants, which implies that color categories may develop independently before language acquisition.