Data and scripts from: Categorical perception of colour signals in a songbird

Categorical perception occurs when continuous variation in a stimulus (e.g., wavelength of color) is categorized by observers, with sharp changes in response occurring over a boundary and increased discrimination between stimuli that lie across a boundary as compared to within a category. We found that female zebra finches show categorical perception of colors in the red to orange visual spectrum that match colors used by males in sexual signaling. The results of this analysis are important to models of sexual selection and assessment signaling.

类别知觉（categorical perception）指观察者对刺激物（如颜色波长）的连续变化进行分类的现象，其反应会在类别边界处出现急剧变化，且相较于类别内部的刺激物，跨边界的刺激物间的辨别能力有所提升。本研究发现，雌性斑胸草雀对红至橙色可见光光谱中的颜色表现出类别知觉，该光谱颜色与雄性个体用于性信号传递的颜色相匹配。本分析的结果对于性选择与评估信号模型具有重要意义。