The study covered in video - related link (vimeo) - shows that linguistically perceiving names of colors makes a difference in level of acuteness to color shades. In the experiment shown, a Himba can easily distinguish shades of green (for which they have distinct terms) which appear to be virtually indistinguishable to westerners as opposed to distinguishing between green and blue which are "far" on the color spectrum but because the Himba do not have a word for blue they struggle to distinguish it from green.
It makes me wonder about ranking of color on the "official" spectrum. I know it is empirically measured through optic splitting of light but those measurements were always done through observation and recording by bias of linguistic perception. It boggles my mind every time I think about it.
Language and perception fascinates me.
The study covered in video - related link (vimeo) - shows that linguistically perceiving names of colors makes a difference in level of acuteness to color shades. In the experiment shown, a Himba can easily distinguish shades of green (for which they have distinct terms) which appear to be virtually indistinguishable to westerners as opposed to distinguishing between green and blue which are "far" on the color spectrum but because the Himba do not have a word for blue they struggle to distinguish it from green.
It makes me wonder about ranking of color on the "official" spectrum. I know it is empirically measured through optic splitting of light but those measurements were always done through observation and recording by bias of linguistic perception. It boggles my mind every time I think about it.