Melissa Groenebaum

Color Perception. Is Whorf right? Do color terms affect color perception? Melissa Groenebaum

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,3, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: The Question if color perception is shaped by language or language is shaped by color perception is a classic nature versus nurture, universalists versus relativity, debate. The Whorf hypothesis suggests the idea that humans, at least trichromats, view the world filtered through the lens of their native language. The Universalists view instead, holds that language does not affect the perception of color but the other way around. Over the years, both of these standardly opposed views have oscillated. The following paper will review recent data and argue that none of the classic views can be fully supported. Regarded by itself, neither the one nor the other view is an answer to the question above. Moreover, the right answer should be regarded as a relativists-universalists symbiosis. Furthermore, in this paper it will be analyze that Whorf was half right, since tests on memory and reaction time have shown that language affects perception only in the right visual field.