Psy1306 Language and Thought

1. Psy1306 Language and Thought Lectures 3 Color Language and Lateralization

2. Electromagnetic Spectrum

3. How many color gradations can the human eye distinguish? 1. about 200 hues 2. about 500 levels of brightness 3. About 20 levels of saturation 200 х 500 х 20 = 2,000,000 color gradations Hue, Saturation, Brightness

4. http://web.mit.edu/bcs/schillerlab/research.html

5. Bipolar cell Ganglion cell Light entering Amacrine cell Horizontal cell Retina Photoreceptor layer To brain via optic nerve Rod Cone

6. Trichromatic Theory • red-, green-, blue-sensitive cones • Opponent-process Theory • red-green, blue-yellow, black-white opponent pairs

7. Trichromatic – Cones • Cones • Short (Blue) • Medium (Green) • Long (Red)

8. Opponent-Process

11. Qs to ask about role of language on color perception

12. Two Positions • Universalists • perceptual categories are “hardwired” into the visual system, and language categories reflect these discontinuities in perceptual color space • Relativists • perceptual categories are constructed through language

13. Berlin & Kay (1969) Berlin & Kay (1969) • Is color naming across languages largely a matter of arbitrary linguistic convention? • If YES: support relativist position • If NO: support universalist position

14. Can languages pick out any category? Shmogs Dogs

15. Berlin & Kay (1969) Dividing the spectrum BLELLOW?

16. Berlin & Kay (1969) Name that color.

17. Berlin & Kay (1969) Languages

18. Berlin & Kay (1969) Results • Hierarchy: Evolution by Stages purplepinkorangegray whiteblack greenyellow < red < < blue < brown < • Color naming across languages • is not so arbitrary

19. Berlin & Kay (1969) Criticisms • Small # of languages • 17 of 20 are of industrial Societies. • Other researchers: color naming vastly different in non-industrial societies. • Small # of subjects per language • Furthermore, subjects were not living in their native land (living in SF area instead).

20. Kay & Regier (2003) Kay & Regier (2003) • Data collected in situ from 110 unwritten languages • Languages spoken in small-scale, non-industrialized societies • Average of 24 native speakers per language • 330 color chips named, one at a time • Asked to tell which is the best example of their basic color terms

22. Kay & Regier (2003) Kay & Regier (2003) • Questions • Do color terms from different languages cluster together in color space to a degree greater than chance? • Do color terms from unwritten languages of non-industrialized societies fall near color terms from written languages of industrialized societies?

23. Kay & Regier (2003) “Certain privileged points in color space appear to anchor the color naming systems of the world’s systems, viewed as a statistical aggregate.” (Kay & Regier, 2003)

24. Berlin & Kay (1969) How would you answer B&K’s Q? • Is color naming across languages largely a matter of arbitrary linguistic convention? • If YES: support relativist position • If NO: support universalist position

25. What is the prelinguistic state? • Do infants show categorical perception of colors like adults?

26. Bornstein, Kessen, & Weisskopf (1976) Bornstein, Kessen, & Weisskopf (1976) • Habituate 4-month-infants to a color then test infants either within- or between-category color. • What happened?

27. Bornstein, Kessen, & Weisskopf (1976) Results

28. Franklin & Davies (2004) Franklin & Davies (2004) Color categories • blue-green • blue-purple • pink-red Design 2 Category (between/within) x 2 Perceptual Distance (near/far)

29. Franklin & Davies (2004) Results

30. Summary of colors tested • Blue vs. Green • Green vs. Yellow • Yellow vs. Red • Red vs. Pink • Blue vs. Purple • Infants show • Categorical Perception

31. Qs to ask about role of language on color perception

32. Categorical Perceptionboundary difference (shift) Grellow Yellow X X Yeen Green Language A Language B

33. Kay & Kempton (1984) Categorical Perceptionboundary difference (absence/presence) Blue X X X Grue Y Green Language A (English) Language B (Tamahara)

34. Kay & Kempton (1984) Choice of Stimuli

35. Kay & Kempton (1984) Choice of Stimuli http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/wcs/data/cnum-maps/WCS-Munsell-chart.html

36. Kay & Kempton (1984) Kay and Kempton (1984) Three Sample Triads

37. Kay & Kempton (1984) Experiment 1

38. Kay & Kempton (1984) Experiment 2

39. Kay & Kempton (1984) Discussion • What do you make of the 2 Experiments? How do they address the role of language on color judgment? • Would you have asked a different question or done a different experiment?

40. Kay & Kempton (1984) Discussion • What is the Whorfian Hypothesis? • What is the degree of the effect? • Application to real life?

41. Next class • Searching for subtle evidence by capitalizing on brain studies…

42. Language in the brain Contralateral Control(as opposed to ipsilateral control) Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere • 1860s: investigators apply electric currents to brains of anesthetized animals and made an interesting discovery. Right Brain Left Brain Left Body Right Body

43. Language in the brain The Wada Test (1949) Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere Juhn A. Wada

44. Language in the brain Rasmussen & Milner (1977) Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere (Normal Patients undergoing Wada Test)

45. Language in the brain Hemispheres & Visual Field Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere Right Visual Field Left Visual Field Right Brain Left Brain

46. Language in the brain Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere Information Flow is as follows: LVF  RH  LH RVF  LH  RH

47. Language in the brain Language in Left Hemisphere Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere Visually Flashed Words: (50 millisecond) More Accurate on Right Visual Field

48. Language in the brain Language in Left Hemisphere Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere More accurate with Right Ear

49. Language in the brain Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere

50. Language in the brain Kimura (1973) Lateralization: Left vs. Right Hemisphere