MAY 29,
2019
by Robin
A. Smith, Duke
University
Birds may
not have a word for maroon. Or burnt sienna. But show a zebra finch a sunset-colored
object, and she'll quickly decide whether it looks more like "red" or
"orange."
A Duke
University study shows that birds mentally sort the range of hues on the blue-green
side of the spectrum into
two categories too, but the line between them is fuzzier.
It may be
that "either/or" thinking is less useful in this part of the color
spectrum, the researchers say. Deciding whether, say, a reddish-beaked male is
good mate material, or which fruits are ripe is vital for survival, whereas the
differences between shades of green grass or blue sky may be less so.
The
findings come from a study of something called categorical perception, a mental
hack in which the brain subdivides the smooth and continuous range of
wavelengths in the visible
spectrum into distinct groups of basic colors , such as red,
orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
No comments:
Post a Comment