3 ms·

I am surprised Dawkins did not touch on the connection of language and color. Aside from physical ability, people "see" colors simply based on the language they

by rada 16y ago

I am surprised Dawkins did not touch on the connection of language and color. Aside from physical ability, people "see" colors simply based on the language they speak. As someone who grew up speaking Russian where light blue and dark blue are 2 separate colors as different as green and yellow, I've often been surprised by English speakers' inability to distinguish between those colors. Similarly, some languages do not distinguish between blue and green, or blue and black, or have no purple, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Color_Terms:_Their_Universality_and_Evolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Color_Terms:_Their_Univer... So the question is, even before physical ability, what part of the difficulty in recognizing a color can be attributed solely to lack of prior experience? In other words, if you subject a color-blind patient to brain stimulation, might they still not see a color simply because they haven't been acculturated to it? Incidentally, I have seen sky-blue-pink, at sunrise on the Haleakala volcano on Maui.

Gormo 16y ago
There must be a psychological component of processing color that can be influenced by language. But is there an actual psychosomatic effect to the extent that the actual neurological processing of color is influenced by the mind, whether consciously or subconsciously? I remember as an infant perceiving blue and green as being two "shades" of the same color, and being surprised that no one else thought of them that way. My early intuitive understanding succumbed to habit, and I no longer make that association, but my physical perception of the colors has never changed.
- stcredzero 16y ago
  This is precisely why L and R are hard to distinguish for Asians, or why Americans are confused by the Korean distinction of more than 2 phonemes in the D to T spectrum and G to K.
  - gojomo 16y ago
    My American-English ears also can't hear certain distinctions along a S-Sh-Sch-Tsh spectrum that at different times Hebrew and Japanese speakers have tried to highlight for me. So I don't buy Dawkins' conjecture there are unused 'qualia' waiting to be stimulated; the brain adapts itself to the sensory ranges available from its body and environment, discarding those distinctions rarely needed. Perhaps years of exposure would slowly grow back the sensitivity -- but there'd be no surprise moment of new experience.

by rada 16y ago

Gormo 16y ago

There must be a psychological component of processing color that can be influenced by language. But is there an actual psychosomatic effect to the extent that the actual neurological processing of color is influenced by the mind, whether consciously or subconsciously? I remember as an infant perceiving blue and green as being two "shades" of the same color, and being surprised that no one else thought of them that way. My early intuitive understanding succumbed to habit, and I no longer make that association, but my physical perception of the colors has never changed.

stcredzero 16y ago
This is precisely why L and R are hard to distinguish for Asians, or why Americans are confused by the Korean distinction of more than 2 phonemes in the D to T spectrum and G to K.
- gojomo 16y ago
  My American-English ears also can't hear certain distinctions along a S-Sh-Sch-Tsh spectrum that at different times Hebrew and Japanese speakers have tried to highlight for me. So I don't buy Dawkins' conjecture there are unused 'qualia' waiting to be stimulated; the brain adapts itself to the sensory ranges available from its body and environment, discarding those distinctions rarely needed. Perhaps years of exposure would slowly grow back the sensitivity -- but there'd be no surprise moment of new experience.