Infant Color Categories

描述（由申请人提供）：没有令人信服的生理学理论可以解释英语中的所有11种基本颜色类别。语言相对主义者（遵循萨皮尔-沃尔夫的观点）认为不可能找到这样的理论，因为他们相信颜色类别是通过语言和文化获得的，而不是生理学。该项目将通过研究婴儿来验证这一假设。(H1)如果婴儿一旦有了色觉，就能分类地感知颜色，而且还没有到能说话的年龄，那么语言就不是分类地感知颜色所必需的。在这种情况下，视觉科学家寻找颜色类别的生理学解释是有意义的。(H2)相比之下，如果婴儿直到获得色觉之后才能绝对地感知颜色，那么绝对感知需要的不仅仅是区分一种颜色和另一种颜色的能力。正如语言相对主义者所建议的那样，这一额外的要求可能是语言的习得。(H3)最后，如果婴儿能明确地感知某些颜色，而不能感知其他颜色，那么寻找某些基本颜色类别（婴儿所看到的）的生理基础，而不是其他颜色类别，就很有意义了。这个R21项目将为研究4个月大的婴儿和成人对颜色的分类感知建立一个新的范式。这将需要两个基本要素，基于在相同的眼动跟踪器设备上收集的眼动数据，并使用相同的响应测量：扫视延迟。这些将是（1）基于眼动优先观看的感觉元素，以及（2）基于视觉搜索的“前注意”感知元素。在建立了用于接受朝向刺激的扫视眼球运动的延迟和空间标准之后，进一步的实验将确定使用颜色盘作为目标和干扰物的“弹出”（瞬时）视觉搜索是否可能。其次，眼动优先观看，感觉成分，将确定感觉颜色辨别是否是使用蓝色和绿色刺激的色度的连续函数。最后，视觉搜索，知觉成分，将决定是否前注意感知蓝色和绿色颜色是绝对的。根据蓝色和绿色刺激的结果，将使用其他颜色进行眼动优先注视和视觉搜索实验。结果将是三种可能性之一。要么（H1）婴儿绝对地感知所有颜色;要么（H2）婴儿绝对地感知任何颜色;要么（H3）婴儿绝对地感知某些颜色，但他们持续地感知某些颜色。根据结果，色觉科学家可以期望找到（H1）所有颜色类别，（H2）没有颜色类别，或（H3）一些颜色类别而不是其他颜色类别的生理解释。虽然婴儿的色觉已经在感官水平上得到了广泛的研究，但关于婴儿对颜色的“了解”却知之甚少。这个项目将确定婴儿是否像成年人一样将颜色分为“红色”，“绿色”，“粉红色”等，或者他们是否只是在没有类别的连续体上感知颜色。该项目将增加我们对正常婴儿视觉和知觉发育的了解，并且这些方法可应用于区分异常感官发育与认知发育的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is no compelling physiological theory that explains all eleven basic color categories in the English language. Linguistic relativists (following the Sapir-Whorf view) argue that no such theory is likely to be found, because they believe that color categories are acquired through language and culture, not physiology. This project will test that hypothesis by studying infants. (H1) If infants perceive colors categorically as soon as they have color vision, and before they are old enough to speak, then language is not necessary for colors to be perceived categorically. In that case, it will make sense for vision scientists to look for a physiological explanation of color categories. (H2) In contrast, if infants do not perceive colors categorically until well after they have acquired color vision, then categorical perception requires more than simply the ability to distinguish one color from another. That additional requirement might be the acquisition of language, as the linguistic relativists suggest. (H3) Finally, if infants perceive some colors categorically but not others, then it will make sense to look for a physiological basis of some basic color categories (those that infants see) but not others. This R21 project will establish a new paradigm for studying categorical perception of color in 4-month-old infants and adults. This will require two essential elements, based on eye movement data collected on the same eye-tracker apparatus, and using the same response measure: saccadic latency. These will be (1) a sensory element based on eye-movement Preferential Looking, and (2) a "preattentive" perceptual element based on Visual Search. After establishing the latency and spatial criteria for accepting a saccadic eye movement towards a stimulus, further experiments will determine whether "pop-out" (instantaneous) Visual Search is possible, using disks of color as targets and distracters. Next, eye movement preferential looking, the sensory component, will determine whether sensory color discrimination is a continuous function of chromatic- ity using blue and green stimuli. Finally, Visual Search, the perceptual component, will determine whether pre- attentive perception of blue and green colors is categorical. Depending on the results with blue and green stimuli, eye movement Preferential Looking and Visual Search experiments will be performed using other colors. The outcome will be one of three possibilities. Either (H1) infants perceive all colors categorically; (H2) infants perceive no colors categorically; or (H3) infants perceive some colors categorically, but they perceive some colors continuously. Depending on the results, color vision scientists can expect to find physiological explanations of (H1) all color categories, (H2) no color categories, or (H3) some color categories but not others. Although infant color vision has been studied extensively at the sensory level, much less is known about what infants "know" about color. This project will determine if infants group colors into "reds", "greens", "pinks", etc, as adults do, or whether they just perceive color on a continuum without categories. This project will increase our understanding of normal infant visual and perceptual development, and the methods can be applied to studies that distinguish between abnormal sensory versus cognitive development.