A segment filmed with members of a tribe in northern Namibia shows how growing up with a different set of color terms affects the ability to recognize slight differences of certain colors.
These findings are presented as if they’re new, but they’re based on the pioneering work of Paul Kay and Brent Berlin in 1969.
One of the challenges for me in getting used to the Yurmby color wheel is learning to recognize cyan and magenta as basic color terms, distinct from blue, green, and red.
Because I didn’t grow up with the terms “cyan” and “magenta,” it has taken me a few years to remap my brain, but now I routinely recognize cyan and magenta colors around me according to their own terms.
It would have been much easier if I had learned those color terms in kindergarten, but that would be like changing America to the metric system.
LINKS
Direct link to video for feedreaders:
Part 1 of the same series
Part 2 of the same series
Part 3 of the same series.
Related article on BBC website: "Do You See What I See?"
Thanks, James Ryman and Campbell Harmon
Book: Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing
The “Yurmby” wheel is presented in Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
Brent Berlin’s study about basic color terms on Wikipedia
Previously on GJ: The Color Wheel (A 7-part series)
