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Colour identification speed as a test of the right visual field Whorfian effect

Authors:
Galina Paramei at Liverpool Hope University
Galina Paramei
Jayne Molyneux
Jayne Molyneux
Jayne Molyneux
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Abstract

Background / Purpose: Colour category boundaries in a 2AFC task are manifested via performance speed: identification is slower for colours near the boundary and faster for more prototypal colours (Bornstein & Korda, 1984).We questioned whether identification speed differs in two visual fields (VFs): faster right VF responses would imply a Whorfian effect of language, suggested by Regier & Kay 2009.Observers were 14 British English speakers. Eleven equiluminant CRT colours fell on an arc between blue (140°) and green (240°). Singletons were presented for 160ms in the LVF (20) or RVF (20) followed by the words blue and green above and below the fixation point. Observers indicated the category by pressing the corresponding button. For each colour/position, frequency of blue- vs. green-identification and median RTs were obtained. Main conclusion: At the blue-green boundary (ca. 180°), median RTs were 200-500ms longer than for colours beyond it. Results were inconclusive: responses were significantly faster in RVF for three observers and in LVF for four, with no difference for other seven. In colour identification, unlike visual search, the temporal boundary marker shows no RVF advantage, being less susceptible to language modulation.
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Colour identification speed as a test
of the right visual field Whorfian effect
Galina V. Paramei <parameg@hope.ac.uk> Department of Psychology,
Jayne Molyneux <07004425@hope.ac.uk> Liverpool Hope University, UK
ECVP 2011
Toulouse
28th August-1st September
Introduction
The Whorf hypothesis:
Semantic categories of the native language shape perception of the world (Whorf, 1956)
Whorfian effects in the colour domain (Kay & Regier, 2009):
In a given language, colour naming is shaped by both universal and language-specific forces:
foci of the Basic Colour Categories (BCCs) tend to be similar across languages,
but BCC boundaries may vary
Language influences colour perception primarily in the right visual field (RVF)
The ‘right’ Whorfian effect
was found using a visual search task:
When the target and distractor colours
have different colour names,
RTs to targets in the RVF are shorter
implying that colour perception is modulated
by language , underpinned in left hemisphere Source: Gilbert et al., 2006, p. 490
(Gilbert et al., 2006)
We questioned whether the ‘right’ Whorfian effect emerges:
in a binary colour identification task (Green vs. Blue)
when RTs at the category boundaries, for RVF and LVF, are compared
Stimuli
11 equiluminant and equisaturated hues progressing from
Unique Green ............ to ............. Unique Blue
Subjects
17 British English monolinguals
(11 females), 20-59 y.o.,
colour normal, right-handed
Conclusions
For British English monolinguals the Green-Blue
category boundary is located predominantly at
180 or 190 in the CIELuv space, with individual
variation between 160-200
The category boundary is manifested via perform-
ance speed: identification is 200-600 ms slower
for colour at the boundary and faster for more
prototypal colours (cf. Bornstein & Korda, 1984)
Median RTs at the category boundary do not differ
significantly between the RVF and LVF
for 16 (out of 17) observers. Only in one case
(EL) responses were significantly faster for the RVF
than the LVF. Noteworthy, for 10 observers RTs
tended to be shorter when colours were presented
in the LVF.
In the rapid binary colour identification task there
is no evidence of faster right visual field processing
of colour category boundary – unlike the RVF
advantage for processing between-category colours
in the visual search task (Gilbert et al., 2006)
The discrepancy may lie in the nature of the two
tasks and the measures in question, with colour
identification being less susceptible to language
modulation than visual search
Alternatively, the previously found RVF effect might
have been caused by target and/or distractor
saliency in relation to colorimetric properties of the
(white) background, rather than reflecting the
categorisation effect (Ruiz & Hupé, 2011)
Results
For LVF and RVF, we
estimated the category boundary, the cross-over point (10:10) of the Green- vs. Blue-count (Harnad, 1987)
estimated median RTs at the category boundary (Bornstein & Korda, 1984)
compared RTs at the LVF vs. RVF category boundary (Wilcoxon signed ranks test)
References
Bornstein MH & Korda NO (1984). Discrimination and matching within and between hues measured by reaction times: some implications
for categorical perception and levels of information processing.
Psychol Res 46
: 207-22 .
Gilbert AL, Regier T, Kay P & Ivry RB (2006). Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left.
PNAS 103
: 489-94.
Harnad S (1987). Category induction and representation. In S Harnad (Ed),
Categorical perception: The groundwork of cognition
(pp 535-
565). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kay P & Regier T (2009). Language, thought and color: Recent developments.
Trends Cog Sci 10
: 51-4.
Ruiz MJ & Hupé J-M (2011). Stimulus saliency, not colour category boundary, accounts for ‘Whorfian’ effects in colour search tasks.
Perception 40 (Suppl)
: 196.
Whorf BL (1956).
Language, thought and reality
: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. JB Carroll (Ed). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
This study was partially funded by the Liverpool
Hope University research grant RES01400
CIELUV
-50
-30
-10
10
30
50
-50 -30 -10 10 30 50
v*
u*
Chromaticity in the CIELuv:
140 = Unique Green
240 = Unique Blue
150 … 230 =
hues straddling the boundary
Inter-hue separation:
angular: 10
E = 6
Brightness: L = 60
Procedure
KM, M, 55 y.o.
EL, F, 24 y.o.
LW1, F, 28 y.o.
Median RT160 (LVF) = 1383 ms
Median RT160 (RVF) = 1445 ms
Z = -1.009, p = 0.313
Median RT190 (LVF) = 1047 ms
Median RT190 (RVF) = 1172 ms
Z = -2.129, p = 0.033
Median RT180 (LVF) = 1102 ms
Median RT180 (RVF) = 1062 ms
Z = -0.093, p = 0.926
Green
Blue
2
1
Each stimulus was presented for 160 ms;
20x in the LVF and 20x in the RVF
Ss were instructed to identify each stimulus
as either Green or Blue as rapidly and
as correct as possible
... Our first main result is that the location of the blue-green color boundary is independent of visual field and language in both the bilingual Mandarin-English and the monolingual English control group. This finding corroborates previous results, which reported no effect of hemifield on the blue-green boundary [1,15,16]. Our estimate of the location of the blue-green boundary (hue angle in CIELuv space 184°, dominant wavelength 492 nm) is in agreement with Bornstein and Monroe's [1] blue-green boundary at 491 nm, employing monochromatic lights. ...
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... Our first main result is that the location of the blue-green color boundary is independent of visual field and language in both the bilingual Mandarin-English and the monolingual English control group. This finding corroborates previous results, which reported no effect of hemifield on the blue-green boundary [1,15,16]. Our estimate of the location of the blue-green boundary (hue angle in CIELuv space ˆ 184°, dominant wavelength ˆ 492 nm) is in agreement with Bornstein and Monroe's [1] blue-green boundary at 491 nm, employing monochromatic lights. ...
Blue–green color categorization in Mandarin–English speakers
Article
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  • Jan 2012
Observers are faster to detect a target among a set of distracters if the targets and distracters come from different color categories. This cross-boundary advantage seems to be limited to the right visual field, which is consistent with the dominance of the left hemisphere for language processing [ Gilbert et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 489 (2006)]. Here we study whether a similar visual field advantage is found in the color identification task in speakers of Mandarin, a language that uses a logographic system. Forty late Mandarin–English bilinguals performed a blue–green color categorization task, in a blocked design, in their first language (L1: Mandarin) or second language (L2: English). Eleven color singletons ranging from blue to green were presented for 160 ms, randomly in the left visual field (LVF) or right visual field (RVF). Color boundary and reaction times (RTs) at the color boundary were estimated in L1 and L2, for both visual fields. We found that the color boundary did not differ between the languages; RTs at the color boundary, however, were on average more than 100 ms shorter in the English compared to the Mandarin sessions, but only when the stimuli were presented in the RVF. The finding may be explained by the script nature of the two languages: Mandarin logographic characters are analyzed visuospatially in the right hemisphere, which conceivably facilitates identification of color presented to the LVF.
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Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2006
The question of whether language affects perception has been debated largely on the basis of cross-language data, without considering the functional organization of the brain. The nature of this neural organization predicts that, if language affects perception, it should do so more in the right visual field than in the left visual field, an idea unexamined in the debate. Here, we find support for this proposal in lateralized color discrimination tasks. Reaction times to targets in the right visual field were faster when the target and distractor colors had different names; in contrast, reaction times to targets in the left visual field were not affected by the names of the target and distractor colors. Moreover, this pattern was disrupted when participants performed a secondary task that engaged verbal working memory but not a task making comparable demands on spatial working memory. It appears that people view the right (but not the left) half of their visual world through the lens of their native language, providing an unexpected resolution to the language-and-thought debate. • categorical perception • color • hemispheric laterality • linguistic relativity
View
Stimulus saliency not colour category boundary accounts for ‘Whorfian’ effects in colour search tasks
Conference Paper
  • Sep 2011
Background / Purpose: Recent studies provided support to the Whorf hypothesis by showing that colour terms affected colour perception ( Regier & Kay 2009). In a speeded visual search task, subjects discriminated extracategorical (e.g. blue and green, as named by each subject in an independent task) and intracategorical (e.g. two shades of green) colour pairs. Response times were shorter for extracategorical than for intracategorical pairs only for targets in the right hemifield. Main conclusion: We conducted a similar experiment on 10 subjects with manual and oculomotor responses, and on average extracategorical pairs were detected faster than intracategorical pairs, as shown previously. However, we measured large response time differences between intracategorical pairs that could not be accounted for by colour category boundaries. Rather, stimulus saliency taking into account background colorimetric properties Rosenholtz et al 2004 explained well our results independently of colour category boundaries. “Categorization” effects in previous studies might have been caused by similar interactions between stimuli and background.We conclude that colour search results do not support the Whorfian hypothesis, whatever the hemifield.
View
Categorical Perception: The Groundwork of Cognition
Article
  • Jul 1989
Scitation is the online home of leading journals and conference proceedings from AIP Publishing and AIP Member Societies
View
Discrimination and matching within and between hues measured by reaction times: Some implications for categorical perception and levels of information processing
Article
  • Feb 1984
Same-different reaction times (RTs) were obtained for pairs of color samples ranging perceptually from blue to green. In Experiment 1, observers responded with “same” if both stimuli in a pair were from the same hue category (i.e., blue-blue or green-green) or “different” if the two stimuli were from different hue categories (i.e., blue-green or green-blue). RT for “same” responses was faster for pairs of physically identical stimuli (A-A) than for pairs of physically different stimuli (A-a) belonging to the same hue. RT for “different” responses was faster for larger physical differences across a boundary between hues (A-B 6 step) than for smaller physical differences (A-B 2 step). Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings: In one phase observers matched pairs of stimuli as “same” or “different” by categorical similarity as in Experiment 1, and in a second phase observers matched the same stimulus pairs, this time by physical similarity. Matching by categorical similarity replicated the pattern of results found in Experiment 1. Matching by physical similarity showed that RTs for “different” responses were equivalently fast independent of the physical difference between A-B pairs, but were faster for A-B than for A-a comparisons. Further, matching identity was faster under categorical match instructions than under physical match instructions. Results of the two experiments support a model of parallel processing of physical and categorical stimulus information in color perception. Further, these reaction-time data and their implications in color perception (for hues) parallel reaction-time data and their implications in speech perception (for phonemes).
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Language, thought and color: Recent developments
Article
  • Mar 2006
  • TRENDS COGN SCI
The classic issue of color naming and color cognition has been re-examined in a recent series of articles. Here, we review these developments, and suggest that they move the field beyond a familiar rhetoric of 'nature versus nurture', or 'universals versus relativity', to new concepts and new questions.
View
Category induction and representation Categorical perception: The groundwork of cognition (pp 535- 565)
  • Jan 1987
  • S Harnad
Harnad S (1987). Category induction and representation. In S Harnad (Ed), Categorical perception: The groundwork of cognition (pp 535- 565). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.