In the eye of the beholder: Is color classification consistent amongst human observers?
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Colorful displays have evolved in multiple plant and animal species as signals to mutualists, antagonists, competitors, mates, and other potential receivers. Studies of color have long relied on subjective classifications of color by human observers. However, humans have a limited ability to perceive color compared to other animals, and human biological, cultural, and environmental variables can influence color perception. Here, we test the consistency of human color classification using fruit color as a model system. We used reflectance data of 67 tropical fruits and surveyed 786 participants to assess the degree to which (i) participants of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds agree on color classification of fruits; and (ii) human classification to a discrete set of commonly used colors (e.g. red, blue, green) corresponds to natural clusters based on light reflectance measures processed through visual systems of other animals. We find that individual humans tend to agree on the colors they attribute to fruits across language groups. However, these colors do not correspond to clearly discernible clusters in di- or tetrachromatic visual systems. These results indicate that subjective color categorizations tend to be consistent amongst observers and can be used for large synthetic studies, but also that they do not reflect natural categories that are relevant to animal observers.
多种动植物类群演化出了色彩艳丽的信号展示结构，以此作为向互利共生者、拮抗者、竞争者、配偶及其他潜在接收者传递信号的方式。长期以来，色彩相关研究均依赖人类观察者对色彩的主观分类。然而，相较于其他动物，人类的色彩感知能力存在局限，且人类的生物学、文化与环境变量均会对色彩感知产生影响。本研究以果实色彩为模式系统，检验人类色彩分类的一致性。我们采集了67种热带果实的反射光谱数据，并招募786名受试者开展调查，以此评估两方面的程度：其一，拥有不同文化与语言背景的受试者在果实色彩分类上的共识程度；其二，人类对一组常用离散色彩（如红、蓝、绿等）的分类结果，是否与基于其他动物视觉系统处理后的光反射光谱数据所得到的自然聚类结果相匹配。研究结果显示，不同语言群体的人类个体在赋予果实的色彩类别上往往具有共识。然而，这些人类定义的色彩与二色视觉或四色视觉系统下可清晰辨识的聚类并不相符。上述结果表明，主观色彩分类在观察者群体中往往具备一致性，可用于大规模综合研究，但同时也说明此类分类并未反映出与动物观察者相关的自然类别。
