Perceptual constraints on colours induce the universality of linguistic colour categorisation.

ABSTRACT: The universal linguistic colour categorisation pattern as evident in the World Colour Survey (WCS) has been a principal focus of investigations on the relationship between language and cognition, yet most existing studies have failed to clarify whether this universality resulted primarily from individual perceptual constraints and/or socio-cultural transmissions. This paper designed an agent-based, unsupervised learning model to address the relative importance of these two aspects to linguistic colour categorisation. By directly comparing with the empirical data in the WCS, our study demonstrated that: the physical colour stimuli that reflect human perceptual constraints on colours trigger a categorisation pattern quantitatively resembling the WCS data, the randomised stimuli that distort

SUBMITTER: Gong T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6531495 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature