FW: [evol-psych] Article: Russian speakers get the blues

[Tom Dolack]

Vsem privet!

I just came across this in the depths of my inbox and thought it would be of
interest to the list. I get questions related to this when we do colors;
perhaps it will help answer them, or perhaps it will just raise more
questions.

To make up for the technical nature of the article I'll also include this
little bit of fun:

"Chris Berman's Nicknames Becoming More Obscure After Taking Night Course In
Russian Literature"

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/chris_bermans_nicknames_becoming

Best to the list,

Tom Dolack

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: evolutionary-psychology at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:evolutionary-psychology at yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 7:34 PM
To: Cognitive NeuroScience; Mind and Brain; Evolutionary-Psychology
Subject: [evol-psych] Article: Russian speakers get the blues

 


Russian speakers get the blues


11:46 01 May 2007 

NewScientist.com news service 

Roxanne Khamsi

The language you speak can affect how you see the world, a new study of
colour perception indicates. Native speakers of Russian - which lacks a
single word for "blue" - discriminated between light and dark blues
differently from their English-speaking counterparts, researchers found.

The Russian language makes an obligatory distinction between light blue,
pronounced "goluboy", and dark blue, pronounced "siniy". Jonathan Winawer at
MIT in the US and colleagues set out to determine whether this linguistic
distinction influences colour perception.

The team recruited 50 people from the Boston area in Massachusetts, US,
roughly half of whom were native Russian speakers. 

Volunteers viewed three blue squares on a screen and had to indicate by
pushing a button whether the single square on top matched the bottom right
or bottom left square in terms of hue (see image for an example). In total
there were 20 different shades of blue.

 

[ORIGINAL IMAGE VIEWABLE THROUGH LINK BELOW]

Subjects had to pick which one of the two bottom squares matched the colour
of the top square.

(Credit: Winawer et al./PNAS)


True blue


Subjects completed two types of tests: in one version, the three squares
were of a similar shade, whereas the other test involved one square that was
a markedly different shade - for example, distinguishing a dark blue from a
light blue.

English speakers were no better at distinguishing between dark and light
blues than they were at telling apart two blues of a similar shade.

Russian speakers, by comparison, were 10% faster at distinguishing between
light (goluboy) blues and dark (siniy) blues than at discriminating between
blues within the same shade category. 

"This is the first time that evidence has been offered to show
cross-linguistic differences in colour perception in an objective task,"
says Winawer. 

Moreover, when Russian speakers had to memorise an eight-digit number while
doing the colour task, they were no better at distinguishing between dark
and light blues and those within of a similar shade.

Winawer believes that this is because the concentration needed to memorise
the number interfered with their verbal brainpower - removing the extra
boost that the Russian language gives in classifying light and dark blues.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI:
10.1073/pnas.0701644104)

Source: NewScientist
http://www.newscien
<http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11759?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn11759>
tist.com/article/dn11759?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=dn11759

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

 


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