Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Language and Cognition01:27

Language and Cognition

293
Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
293
Color Vision01:24

Color Vision

392
Color perception begins in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. Two main theories explain how colors are seen: the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory. The trichromatic theory, proposed by Thomas Young in 1802 and extended by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1852, suggests that color vision is based on three types of cone receptors in the retina. These cones are sensitive to different but overlapping ranges of wavelengths corresponding to red, blue, and green.
392
Language01:16

Language

175
Language is a unique communication system that uses words and systematic rules to organize and transmit information. Unlike other forms of communication, which may involve postures, movements, odors, or vocalizations, language relies on symbols and grammar. This makes human communication distinct from that of other species, who also communicate but do not use language in the same way humans do.
Corballis and Suddendorf (2007) and Tomasello and Rakoczy (2003) highlight the role of language in...
175
Language Development01:22

Language Development

284
Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
284
Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways01:22

Photoreceptors and Visual Pathways

5.5K
At the molecular level, visual signals trigger transformations in photopigment molecules, resulting in changes in the photoreceptor cell's membrane potential. The photon's energy level is denoted by its wavelength, with each specific wavelength of visible light associated with a distinct color. The spectral range of visible light, classified as electromagnetic radiation, spans from 380 to 720 nm. Electromagnetic radiation wavelengths exceeding 720 nm fall under the infrared category,...
5.5K
Components of Language01:24

Components of Language

200
Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.
200

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Large language models have learned to use language.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same author

How Important Is Language for Human-Like Intelligence?

Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science·2026
Same author

Differences in psychologists' cognitive traits are associated with scientific divides.

Nature human behaviour·2025
Same author

Trade-offs, control conditions, and alternative designs in the experimental study of cultural evolution.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2024
Same author

Language models align with human judgments on key grammatical constructions.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2024
Same author

Mind Melds: Verbal Labels Induce Greater Representational Alignment.

Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science·2024
Same journal

Teams perform worse when newcomers hold critical information than when original group members do.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Auditory perceptual maps in humans and mice share common structures and predict perceptual decisions in discrimination learning.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Cross-cultural evidence for positive control and mind-mindedness as buffers for parental distress.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Why sycophantic LLMs may imperil interactive norms between humans.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Early detection of distinct language development in infants of mothers with severe mental illness using fNIRS.

Communications psychology·2026
Same journal

Real-time cognitive-affective dynamics of failure feedback in a technology-based learning task.

Communications psychology·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 13, 2025

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color
10:27

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Published on: February 20, 2014

22.8K

Learning about color from language.

Qiawen Liu1,2, Jeroen van Paridon3, Gary Lupyan3

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA. ql3814@princeton.edu.

Communications Psychology
|April 14, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Color associations, like red being hot, are learned through language, even by the congenitally blind. Statistical language structures, particularly in fiction, reveal these learned color-adjective connections.

More Related Videos

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

6.6K
Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
07:31

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

6.5K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 13, 2025

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color
10:27

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Published on: February 20, 2014

22.8K
Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization
05:35

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

6.6K
Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms
07:31

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

6.5K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Linguistics
  • Computational Linguistics

Background:

  • Color-adjective associations are often linked to visual experiences (e.g., red=hot).
  • Congenitally blind individuals exhibit similar color associations, suggesting non-visual learning mechanisms.
  • Language plays a crucial role in shaping abstract concepts and associations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether color-adjective associations are embedded in the statistical structure of language.
  • To determine if these language-based associations align with those reported by blind and sighted individuals.
  • To identify the linguistic patterns most influential in forming these associations.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized word embeddings trained on large English language corpora (spoken, written, and fiction).
  • Applied a projection method to word embeddings to extract color-adjective associations.
  • Compared model-derived associations with associations reported by human participants (blind and sighted).
  • Analyzed sentence structures within corpora to pinpoint associative learning mechanisms.

Main Results:

  • Language embeddings accurately predicted human color-adjective associations, including those of the congenitally blind.
  • Embeddings from a fiction corpus yielded the most predictive associations, outperforming GPT-4.
  • Models learn these associations through indirect (second-order) word co-occurrences.
  • Humans can identify specific words that inform color-adjective associations when prompted.

Conclusions:

  • Color-adjective associations are robustly represented in the statistical properties of language.
  • Linguistic co-occurrences provide a mechanism for aligning word meanings across individuals with diverse perceptual experiences.
  • Fiction corpora are particularly effective in capturing nuanced semantic associations.