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Colourful Whorfian Ideas: Linguistic and Cultural Influences on the Perception and Cognition of Colour, and on the Investigation of Them
Author(s) -
GELLATLY ANGUS
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0017.1995.tb00011.x
Subject(s) - interpretation (philosophy) , categorization , psychology , presupposition , ethnocentrism , cognition , perception , mediation , comprehension , linguistics , abstraction , cognitive psychology , contrast (vision) , language and thought , epistemology , cognitive science , social psychology , sociology , philosophy , neuroscience , social science , artificial intelligence , computer science
The resent paper reviews three phases in the literature on cognition and colour, and also Luria's (1976) observations of the effects that literacy and/or schooling have on colour naming and colour categorization. It is argued that Luria's own interpretation of his findings is partiafly flawed by inconsistency, and by ethnocentric presuppositions concerning mediation and abstraction. A revised interpretation is proposed that draws on Gibson's (1950, 1966) contrast between direct and indirect perceptions. It is suggested that language usage and cultural practices come to exert a joint effect upon the experience of colour by selectively directing attention towards or away from the various perceptible aspects of coloured objects.