Can You See A Color if You Don't Know Its Name? Ask a Baby.

by ParentCo. February 11, 2016

A new study shows that infants aged between 5 and 7 months categorize colors, even before they can use language.

This study appears to be the first evidence that color perception has a universal starting point prior to language acquisition.

It begins to answer a long-standing debate (at least among stoners and philosophers) about the nature of our perception of color. At a basic level, how subjective is color? Do colors exist if we don't name them?

Anther way of saying it: if a person is raised to call the color "red" "green," do they actually perceive red as a shade of green? Woah, trippy. As reported by Science Daily, the new study reveals that the categorization of colors can be independent of language, at least in the early stage of development in an infant's visual system.

For the study, infants 5-7 months old were tested to see if brain activity was different for colors in different categories. Brain activity increased significantly when the colors of blue and green were alternated, while there was no significant reaction to the alternation of different shades of green.

Results show that color information is processed in infant brains in a way similar to adults. They also imply that color categories develop independent of language.

So color categories may develop independently before language acquisition. Still TBD: is color simply something in our brains, or does it exist independently in the world?

Source:
Jiale Yang, So Kanazawa, Masami K. Yamaguchi, Ichiro Kuriki. Cortical response to categorical color perception in infants investigated by near-infrared spectroscopy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2016; 201512044 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1512044113



ParentCo.

Author



Also in Conversations

elementary students raising their arms on a class
How to Help your Children with the Back-to-School Transition

by Joy Turner

How do you manage the back-to-school butterflies and ensure that your child is prepared for new faces? Here are three tips to set your children up for success.

Continue Reading

children sitting in class
10 Reasons to Consider Preschool if You're on the Fence

by ParentCo.

Preschool infuses your little one's day with a whole new world of interesting activities, plus new people to connect with and enjoy. Plus, more great reasons!

Continue Reading

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 pasted 3d figures
Ask These 5 Questions To Determine Kindergarten Readiness

by ParentCo.

As their parent, you know best.

Continue Reading