Psychological Development and Education ›› 2021, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 19-25.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.01.03

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New Evidence for Whorf Hypothesis: Lexical Categories Affect Preattentive Color Perception when Within- and Between-category Colors are Equally Discriminable

ZHONG Weifang1, GUO Yongxing2, RU Taotao3, HOU Wei1   

  1. 1. Guangdong Justice Police Vocational College, Guangzhou 510520;
    2. Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631;
    3. Lab of Lighting and Physio-psychological Health, National Center for International Research on Green Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631
  • Published:2021-01-22

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Abstract: The present study investigated whether lexical categories affect preattentive color perception when within- and between-category colors are equally discriminable. Four gradual colors (two greens and two blues), with within- and between-category colors equated in the number of just-noticeable differences, were used. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were monitored during a visual oddball task where standard and deviant colored stimuli from the same or different lexical categories were presented. ERPs showed that, within-category deviants evoked a marginal significantly larger vMMN than the between-category deviants when the stimuli were presented in the left visual field (LVF), but no such difference was observed when stimuli were presented in the right visual field (RVF). Further, between-category deviants evoked a significantly larger vMMN when the stimuli were presented in the RVF, but within-category deviants evoked similar vMMNs when the stimuli were presented in different visual fields. These results suggested that lexical categories affect preattentive color perception when within- and between-category colors are equally discriminable, supporting the Whorf Hypothesis.

Key words: Whorf Hypothesis, lexical category, color categorical perception, vMMN

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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