Colors and Things
How many colors are there? Quoted numbers range from ten million to a dozen. Are colors object properties? Opinions range all the way from of course they are to no, colors are just mental paint . These questions are ill-posed. We submit that the way to tackle such questions is to adopt a biological...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1aea7696e2e64b5fbaa2fa5447e19ddc 2023-05-15T18:40:25+02:00 Colors and Things Jan Koenderink Andrea van Doorn Karl Gegenfurtner 2020-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520958431 https://doaj.org/article/1aea7696e2e64b5fbaa2fa5447e19ddc EN eng SAGE Publishing https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520958431 https://doaj.org/toc/2041-6695 2041-6695 doi:10.1177/2041669520958431 https://doaj.org/article/1aea7696e2e64b5fbaa2fa5447e19ddc i-Perception, Vol 11 (2020) Psychology BF1-990 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520958431 2022-12-31T14:24:32Z How many colors are there? Quoted numbers range from ten million to a dozen. Are colors object properties? Opinions range all the way from of course they are to no, colors are just mental paint . These questions are ill-posed. We submit that the way to tackle such questions is to adopt a biological approach, based on the evolutionary past of hominins. Hunter-gatherers in tundra or savannah environments have various, mutually distinct uses for color. Color differences aid in segmenting the visual field, whereas color qualia aid in recognizing objects. Classical psychophysics targets the former, but mostly ignores the latter, whereas experimental phenomenology, for instance in color naming, is relevant for recognition. Ecological factors, not anatomical/physiological ones, limit the validity of qualia as distinguishing signs. Spectral databases for varieties of daylight and object reflectance factors allow one to model this. The two questions are really one. A valid question that may replace both is how many distinguishing signs does color vision offer in the hominin Umwelt? The answer turns out to be about a thousand . The reason is that colors are formally not object properties but pragmatically are useful distinguishing signs. Article in Journal/Newspaper Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles i-Perception 11 6 204166952095843 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
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Psychology BF1-990 |
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Psychology BF1-990 Jan Koenderink Andrea van Doorn Karl Gegenfurtner Colors and Things |
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Psychology BF1-990 |
description |
How many colors are there? Quoted numbers range from ten million to a dozen. Are colors object properties? Opinions range all the way from of course they are to no, colors are just mental paint . These questions are ill-posed. We submit that the way to tackle such questions is to adopt a biological approach, based on the evolutionary past of hominins. Hunter-gatherers in tundra or savannah environments have various, mutually distinct uses for color. Color differences aid in segmenting the visual field, whereas color qualia aid in recognizing objects. Classical psychophysics targets the former, but mostly ignores the latter, whereas experimental phenomenology, for instance in color naming, is relevant for recognition. Ecological factors, not anatomical/physiological ones, limit the validity of qualia as distinguishing signs. Spectral databases for varieties of daylight and object reflectance factors allow one to model this. The two questions are really one. A valid question that may replace both is how many distinguishing signs does color vision offer in the hominin Umwelt? The answer turns out to be about a thousand . The reason is that colors are formally not object properties but pragmatically are useful distinguishing signs. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jan Koenderink Andrea van Doorn Karl Gegenfurtner |
author_facet |
Jan Koenderink Andrea van Doorn Karl Gegenfurtner |
author_sort |
Jan Koenderink |
title |
Colors and Things |
title_short |
Colors and Things |
title_full |
Colors and Things |
title_fullStr |
Colors and Things |
title_full_unstemmed |
Colors and Things |
title_sort |
colors and things |
publisher |
SAGE Publishing |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520958431 https://doaj.org/article/1aea7696e2e64b5fbaa2fa5447e19ddc |
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Tundra |
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Tundra |
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i-Perception, Vol 11 (2020) |
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https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520958431 https://doaj.org/toc/2041-6695 2041-6695 doi:10.1177/2041669520958431 https://doaj.org/article/1aea7696e2e64b5fbaa2fa5447e19ddc |
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https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669520958431 |
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