Koenderink Jan, van Doorn Andrea, Gegenfurtner Karl
Department of Experimental Psychology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
Iperception. 2020 Nov 5;11(6):2041669520958431. doi: 10.1177/2041669520958431. eCollection 2020 Nov-Dec.
How many colors are there? Quoted numbers range from ten million to a dozen. Are colors object properties? Opinions range all the way from to . These questions are ill-posed. We submit that the way to tackle such questions is to adopt a biological approach, based on the evolutionary past of hominins. Hunter-gatherers in tundra or savannah environments have various, mutually distinct uses for color. Color differences aid in segmenting the visual field, whereas color qualia aid in recognizing objects. Classical psychophysics targets the former, but mostly ignores the latter, whereas experimental phenomenology, for instance in color naming, is relevant for recognition. Ecological factors, not anatomical/physiological ones, limit the validity of qualia as distinguishing signs. Spectral databases for varieties of daylight and object reflectance factors allow one to model this. The two questions are really one. A valid question that may replace both is The answer turns out to be . The reason is that colors are formally not object properties but pragmatically are useful distinguishing signs.
有多少种颜色？引用的数字从一千万到一打不等。颜色是物体的属性吗？观点从……到……应有尽有。这些问题表述不当。我们认为，解决此类问题的方法是采用一种基于人类进化史的生物学方法。苔原或稀树草原环境中的狩猎采集者对颜色有各种相互不同的用途。颜色差异有助于划分视野，而颜色感受质有助于识别物体。经典心理物理学针对前者，但大多忽略了后者，而实验现象学，例如在颜色命名中，与识别相关。生态因素而非解剖学/生理学因素限制了感受质作为区分标志的有效性。各种日光和物体反射率因素的光谱数据库使人们能够对此进行建模。这两个问题实际上是一个问题。一个可以取代这两个问题的有效问题是……答案是……原因是颜色在形式上不是物体的属性，但在实际应用中是有用的区分标志。
