Categorical color coding in a one-phase avoidance procedure

Four colors (red, yellow, green, and blue) were arranged in all possible two-color sets to determine if goldfish can discriminate between color sets associated with shock and color sets associated with safety/shock omission in a one-phase (linear presentation) discrimination-learning procedure. The results showed that goldfish learned to discriminate between two-color sets if set colors were natural categorical color-code mates (red = yellow and green = blue). When natural code mates were not in the same set, and therefore were paired with different shock consequents, no discrimination learning occurred, suggesting that goldfish, unlike pigeons, are not able to code colors arbitrarily. The method also allowed a measure of preference between colors within sets associated with safety/shock omission. Original-learning preference measures between colors in sets so associated showed that goldfish chose red over any other color, yellow over blue or green, and green over blue, despite the fact that both colors in any set were procedurally identical, implying that goldfish do discriminate between colors in the absence of explicit discrimination training. The goldfish that failed to discriminate between red/blue and green/yellow sets in original learning were transferred to red/yellow and blue/green color sets. In transfer, the color paired with safety/shock omission in original learning was preferred over the color paired with shock in original learning, which resulted in a reversal of original-learning color preferences for half the goldfish. The transfer color-preference results imply that the goldfish had associated specific colors with specific shock consequents, but the associations were not robust enough to support discrimination learning in the face of categorical color coding.     

Transfer of discriminative control during stimulus fading conducted without reinforcement

Using trial-and-error training, eight pigeons did not learn to discriminate between 45° and 135° lines, but did learn to discriminate between red and green colors. Control by line tilt was induced by stimulus fading that did not include reinforcement while fading out the colors. After establishing the red–green discrimination, low-intensity lines were superimposed on colors and were gradually faded in. All of this was done using reinforcement. At the end of the line fade-in, the lines had not acquired control of responding. Finally, color intensity was gradually faded out in the absence of reinforcement, and the lines acquired discriminative control by six of the eight pigeons. Thus, reinforcement during the color fade-out was not necessary for the acquisition of discriminative control by the lines during fading. Acquisition of control by lines was attributed to overshadowing, the reduction of stimulus blocking by generalization, and the evocation of correct responding by the colors while the participants were attending to the lines. This last process was also responsible for the induction of discriminative control during sensory preconditioning, higher order conditioning, and response transfer in equivalence classes. Errors, however, were not correlated with discrimination learning during stimulus fading. Finally, transfer of control occurred very quickly with or without errors.     

Categorical color coding by pigeons

Pigeons were trained on two independent tasks. One involved red and yellow hues, the other involved blue and green hues. For half of the birds, the two tasks were the same (i.e., both tasks were either matching-to-sample, or oddity-from-sample). For the remaining birds, the two tasks were different (i.e., one task was matching-to-sample; the other task was oddity-from-sample). Following acquisition, the pigeons were exposed to test trials on which either the correct or the incorrect comparison hue was replaced with one of the hues from the other task. On yellow-sample trials and on green-sample trials, the pigeons performed as if they had a common code for yellow and green. When there was one comparison available that was appropriate to the “yellow/green” code, performance remained high; but when either both comparisons or neither comparison was appropriate to the “yellow/green” code, performance dropped. The pigeons also tended to code red samples as green and to code blue samples as yellow. The results indicate that pigeons can categorically code colors under conditions that rule out a failure to discriminate among the colors.     

Extradimensional transfer in the discriminative learning of goldfish

In Experiment I, one group of goldfish (TD) was trained to discriminate blue and green while a second group (PD) was exposed to the same colors in a “pseudodiscrimination,” after which both groups were reinforced for response to a tone. The TD group subsequently showed a sharper auditory discrimination gradient than the PD group and performed better in a differentially reinforced tone discrimination. The former PD animals then were given true discrimination training and the former TD animals pseudodiscrimination training with the colors, after which the first group showed better tone discrimination than the second. These results are analogous to those found in pigeons and rats. In Experiment II, goldfish which were trained in an easy color discrimination and shifted to a more difficult tone discrimination performed better than a control group trained from the outset with the tones. This result suggests that the dimensional specificity of the processes responsible for “transfer along a continuum” cannot safely be assumed in the absence of appropriate controls.     

从"颜色"看中西方文化之差异

一种颜色在不同的民族语言中往往被赋予不同的文化内涵。通过比较白、红、绿、蓝、黄、黑、紫等色彩词在英汉语言中的意义差别，可了解中西方文化之差异。     

Pigeons’ discrimination of color proportion in computer-generated visual displays

Pigeons were trained to discriminate the proportion of red to green color in paired stimulus displays. Initially, the stimuli were horizontal bars composed of continuous blocks of color that varied from being all red versus all green to .5 proportions of these two colors. Discrimination accuracy decreased as a function of the disparity in the proportions of the two colors. This relationship was maintained when the stimulus configurations were altered in various ways. Tests with horizontal bars indicated that the pigeons could utilize differences in the lengths (or areas) of one of the colors when choosing between stimuli. They did not rely only on this type of cue to assess proportion disparities but rather on multiple stimulus parameters. Also, the form of the discrimination function suggests that the pigeons distinguished ratio differences, so that Weber’s law applies to this type of discrimination.     

Matching and oddity conditional discrimination in the goldfish as avoidance responses: Evidence for conceptual avoidance learning

Goldfish, trained in the avoidance shuttlebox with a variant of the linear discrimination procedure, learned to conditionally discriminate between color signals, both for the matching (M) and oddity (O) criterion forms. Transfer to assess the possibility of concept learning was also tested. In original learning, oddity-trained groups learned faster and reached higher conditional discrimination performance levels than did matching-trained groups. In transfer, various groups were tested with the same criterion (MM or OO) or a shifted criterion (MO or OM), and half of each group retained the same color signals and the remaining half had its color signals changed in transfer. Groups with the same criterion in original learning and transfer (MM or OO), regardless of signal colors, showed comparable positive transfer. Groups with their criterion shifted between original learning and transfer (MO or OM) showed comparable negative transfer, regardless of signal colors. Since both positive- and negative-transfer effects were independent of signal colors, it is clear that what was learned for one set of signal colors transferred to at least one other signal-color set. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that goldfish learned the original conditional discrimination at a conceptual level, and learned about the general matching or oddity relationships between colors, rather than about a specific set of colors.     

颜色词价值取向与色彩崇拜意识的跨文化透视

不同民族对色彩的价值取向存在着明显的差异,决定这些差异的因素多种多样。本文通过对黑白本色、红黄蓝三原色及紫绿调和色进行跨文化对比,揭示出中西方民族对这几种色彩好恶的文化渊源。     

Domestic pigeons (Columba livia) discriminate between photographs of male and female pigeons

We investigated whether pigeons are able to discriminate color photographs of male and female pigeons, using a categorical discrimination procedure. In Experiments 1 and 2B, 10 out of 14 pigeons learned the discrimination. Of these, 5 pigeons showed transfer to novel stimuli, demonstrating the categorical nature of the trained discrimination. Experiment 3 showed that the discriminative behavior was based primarily on the body, as opposed to the head and the neck region. In 1 out of 3 pigeons, the discriminative behavior was maintained by the black-and-white photographs. The results suggest that some pigeons have the ability to discriminate the sex of conspecifics without behavioral cues.     

Analysis of alternation patterning in goldfish

In Experiment 1, goldfish trained with alternation of reward (R) and nonreward (N) for responding to a single color gave clear evidence of patterning (more rapid responding on R than on N trials). In Experiment 2, patterning was found for each of two colors alternately rewarded and nonrewarded in the sequence blue R, yellow R, blue N, yellow N, …. Changes in performance with subsequent changes in the sequence of the two colors suggested that the patterning was based on carryover rather than on associative memory of R and N.     

用色彩塑造的文本世界——沈从文作品中的色彩意象

沈从文在自己的文本世界中有意识地进行了意象的选择和营构,给同时代的中国现代文学保有了一种难得的审美形式。同时其作品中有着丰富的色彩语言和由此形成的色彩意象。传统的红、黄、绿、蓝;白、青、灰、黑在其文本世界中饱含了深刻的寓意性、哲理性,是其借以描摹自然景物、刻画人物形象和体悟人性的重要载体。     

关于4-6岁幼儿色彩偏好的实物分析研究

随机选取某幼儿园126名4-6岁幼儿为研究对象,主要通过对幼儿的美术作品进行分析,辅之以对幼儿的美术活动进行观察的方法进行研究,发现:(1)4-6岁幼儿在美术作品中最偏好的颜色是红色和黄色,其次是蓝色、绿色、粉红、橙色、紫色、黑色。(2)不同年龄幼儿除了橙色没有显著性差异外,其余颜色均有显著性差异。(3)不同性别的幼儿在美术作品中对于色彩的偏好均有极其显著性差异(P0.001),男幼儿比女幼儿更喜欢黄色、蓝色,女幼儿比男幼儿更喜欢红色、粉色、橙色、紫色、绿色、黑色。     

Testing the scalar expectancy theory (SET) and the learning-to-time model (LeT) in a double bisection task

Two theories of timing, scalar expectancy theory (SET) and learning-to-time (LeT), make substantially different assumptions about what animals learn in temporal tasks. In a test of these assumptions, pigeons learned two temporal discriminations. On Type 1 trials, they learned to choose a red key after a 1-sec signal and a green key after a 4-sec signal; on Type 2 trials, they learned to choose a blue key after a 4-sec signal and a yellow key after either an 8-sec signal (Group 8) or a 16-sec signal (Group 16). Then, the birds were exposed to signals 1 sec, 4 sec, and 16 sec in length and given a choice between novel key combinations (red or green vs. blue or yellow). The choice between the green key and the blue key was of particular significance because both keys were associated with the same 4-sec signal. Whereas SET predicted no effect of the test signal duration on choice, LeT predicted that preference for green would increase monotonically with the length of the signal but would do so faster for Group 8 than for Group 16. The results were consistent with LeT, but not with SET.     

Further avoidance studies with goldfish: Brightness discrimination and transposition

In two experiments using the shuttlebox apparatus and negative (shock) reinforcement, goldfish learned to discriminate between same color signals differing only in brightness and to choose the brightness level paired with shock-omission to avoid shock. Experiment 1 compared two signal presentation procedures, one presenting only one signal at a time but allowing for successive alternation of signals within a trial (SUC) and the other presenting both signals simultaneously (SIM). SIM performance was superior to SUC in acquisition and showed more positive transfer with signal color changed (CC), more negative transfer with brightness-level—shock pairing reversed (R), and, although attenuated, more negative transfer with both signal color changed and shock pairing reversed (CC + R). Further, SIM relearning following reversal was faster than SUC. In Experiment 2, using the SIM procedure, eight transfer groups were tested for transposition with one of their original acquisition signals replaced in transfer by a signal bearing either the same or the opposite brightness relationship to the retained signal. Four transfer groups showed positive and four showed negative transfer effects, but all eight groups showed transfer performances consistent with a transpositional expectation. The present two experiments alone do not elucidate the mechanisms accounting for either the SIM superiority over SUC in Experiment 1 or the transposition effect in Experiment 2. These experiments show only that the transposition phenomenon can be supported by negative reinforcement procedures, which has not been demonstrated before. Now that techniques exist for producing negatively reinforced transposition, work investigating the underlying mechanisms and comparing them with the mechanisms of positively reinforced transposition can begin.     

Preliminary evidence for color stimuli discrimination in the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea)

Color discrimination ability can be determined through anatomy or perceptual ability. In this study we tested perceptual ability. Three Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea), one male and two females, were trained via operant conditioning to discriminate stimuli within a training task. If they passed criteria for this task, they were tested on as many as six delayed matching-to-sample experimental tasks. These experimental tasks involved comparing varying saturations of the colors blue, green, and red against varying shades of gray, as well as against each other. The male reached criterion on five of the experimental tasks, indicating an ability to discriminate the stimuli. One female participated in only two tasks and did not achieve the criteria as set. The second female did not pass the training task, and thus was not experimentally tested. This study overall showed some early evidence that Asian small-clawed otters may have the ability to learn to discriminate different stimuli on the basis of color cues. Sensory studies conducted on two other otter species and the results of this study indicate that color vision may be a common trait across Lutrinae species.     

白光的夫琅和费圆孔衍射中央圆斑色调

用颜色匹配法，将白光分解为红、绿、兰三基色，而白光的夫琅和费圆孔衍射中央亮斑各点的颜色就有该点的三基色混合而成。     

4-6岁幼儿对室内环境颜色偏好的研究

通过图像等级排列法对4-6岁幼儿对室内环境的颜色偏好进行实验研究,表明：4-6岁幼儿在内部环境里更喜欢蓝色;男生和女生对室内环境的颜色偏好在绿色和灰色上有明显差异,其他颜色无明显差异;不同年龄段的幼儿对室内环境的颜色偏好在黄色和灰色上存在显著差异,其他颜色无明显差异。     

Discrimination of relative numerosity by pigeons

In three experiments, pigeons were trained to discriminate between uniform arrays of two elements that differed in color, form, or size. They were then tested with arrays that contained different proportions of the two elements on these dimensions. In all cases, orderly discrimination gradients reflected these proportions. The discrimination readily transferred to new arrays with similar stimuli, but with different total numbers of elements. In Experiment 4, the pigeons were taught to discriminate between two groups of categorical stimuli: pictures of birds and pictures of flowers. A test with different proportions of each again produced a gradient based on relative numerosity. Experiment 5 demonstrated transfer of stimulus control on the numerosity dimension when pigeons were trained with one set of instances from two categories, and then were tested with new instances from the same categories.     

色彩缤纷的“青”系字

＂青＂是个表示颜色的词。其特殊之处在于,它反映了植物生长过程中颜色的变化：白里透红、浅绿、深绿。同时,它又有自己的发展轨迹,顺着颜色的深浅继续发展,表示浅蓝、深蓝甚至黑色。因此它几乎能表示各种颜色。而在＂白里透红＂的意义上,更是引申出了不少意义。     

小议英文颜色词的表述形式及其引申义

大千世界,色彩斑斓,每种语言都会尽力去表达出颜色的千变万化,英语也不例外。文章着重以red,black,blue,green,white为例说明英语颜色词的表述及其引申义。