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Related Concept Videos

Color Vision

Color Vision

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.

Language and Cognition

Language and Cognition

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.

Factors Affecting Perception

Factors Affecting Perception

Perception is influenced by perceptual set, context, motivation, and emotion. Perceptual set, or perceptual expectancy, refers to the tendency to perceive things in a particular way, influenced by previous experiences and expectations. This phenomenon affects the interpretation of stimuli, creating a set of mental tendencies and assumptions that impact sensory perceptions of sound, taste, touch, and sight.
An illustrative example of a perceptual set is the scenario where an airline pilot told...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 16, 2025

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Statistical or Embodied? Comparing Colorseeing, Colorblind, Painters, and Large Language Models in Their Processing

Ethan O Nadler¹, Douglas Guilbeault², Sofronia M Ringold^3,4

¹Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of California San Diego.

Cognitive Science

|July 7, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Embodied experience, not just language statistics, is crucial for understanding color metaphors. Even large language models (LLMs) trained on text alone struggle with coherent color-based reasoning, highlighting the importance of visual perception.

Keywords:

Cognition Color Embodiment Language Large language models Machine learning Metaphor processing

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Linguistics
Artificial Intelligence

Background:

Color perception and its role in metaphorical reasoning are debated.
Existing research suggests language may contribute to color understanding, even for colorblind individuals.
The extent to which language alone can confer metaphorical color understanding is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether large language models (LLMs) can learn metaphorical color reasoning from text alone.
To compare color associations and metaphor interpretation across colorseeing adults, colorblind adults, and LLMs.
To determine the role of embodied experience in metaphorical reasoning about color.

Main Methods:

Conducted preregistered surveys comparing colorseeing adults, colorblind adults, and GPT (a large language model).
Assessed participants' ability to associate colors with novel words and interpret conventional/novel color metaphors.
Compared the consistency and coherence of color associations and metaphorical reasoning across groups.

Main Results:

Colorseeing and colorblind adults showed similar, replicable color associations.
GPT generated consistent but significantly different color associations compared to human participants.
GPT struggled to coherently explain or invert its own color metaphors, unlike human participants.
Painters demonstrated a greater capacity for embodied reasoning in understanding novel color metaphors.

Conclusions:

Embodied experience, particularly visual perception, appears vital for robust metaphorical reasoning about color.
Language statistics alone are insufficient for LLMs to achieve human-like metaphorical color understanding.
Findings suggest a significant contribution of embodied experience to conceptual connections involving color.