Pinna Baingio, Reeves Adam
Department of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sassari at Alghero, Sassari, Italy.
Psychol Res. 2015 Jan;79(1):64-82. doi: 10.1007/s00426-013-0536-2. Epub 2013 Dec 29.
Phylogenetic and paleontological evidence indicates that in the animal kingdom the ability to perceive colors evolved independently several times over the course of millennia. This implies a high evolutionary neural investment and suggests that color vision provides some fundamental biological benefits. What are these benefits? Why are some animals so colorful? What are the adaptive and perceptual meanings of polychromatism? We suggest that in addition to the discrimination of light and surface chromaticity, sensitivity to color contributes to the whole, the parts and the fragments of perceptual organization. New versions of neon color spreading and the watercolor illusion indicate that the visual purpose of color in humans is threefold: to inter-relate each chromatic component of an object, thus favoring the emergence of the whole; to support a part-whole organization in which components reciprocally enhance each other by amodal completion; and, paradoxically, to reveal fragments and hide the whole-that is, there is a chromatic parceling-out process of separation, division, and fragmentation of the whole. The evolution of these contributions of color to organization needs to be established, but traces of it can be found in Harlequin camouflage by animals and in the coloration of flowers.
系统发育学和古生物学证据表明，在动物王国中，感知颜色的能力在数千年的时间里独立进化了好几次。这意味着在进化过程中对神经投入巨大，也表明色觉具有一些基本的生物学益处。这些益处是什么呢？为什么有些动物如此色彩斑斓？多色性的适应性和感知意义是什么？我们认为，除了对光和表面色度的辨别之外，对颜色的敏感度有助于感知组织的整体、部分和片段。霓虹色扩散和水彩错觉的新变体表明，颜色在人类视觉中的作用有三个方面：使物体的每个色彩成分相互关联，从而有利于整体的呈现；支持一种部分-整体组织，其中各成分通过非模态完成相互增强；自相矛盾的是，揭示片段而隐藏整体——也就是说，存在一个对整体进行分离、划分和碎片化的色彩分配过程。颜色对组织的这些作用的进化过程有待确定，但在动物的花斑伪装和花朵的颜色中可以找到其痕迹。
