Unique Hue Judgment in Different Languages: A Comparison of Korean and English

Three experiments investigated unique hues (Hering, 1878) in native Korean and English speakers. Many recent studies have shown that color categories differ across languages and cultures, challenging the proposal that a particular set of color categories is universal and potentially innate. Unique hue judgments, and selection of the best examples of those categories have also been found to vary within an English-speaking population. Here we investigated unique hue judgments and possible discrepancies between unique hue and best example judgments in two languages. Experiment 1 found that the loci of unique hues were similar for English and Korean speakers. Experiment 2 replicated and extended this result, using both single and double hue scaling. Experiment 3 showed that, in both cultures, unique hue choices depended on the range, and organization of the array from which participants chose. The results of this study suggest that unique hue judgments vary according to the experimental task, in both language

Relatively Speaking: An Account of the Relationship between Language and Thought in the Color Domain

This chapter is divided into six sections. The first sets out the background of the debate about the relationship between language and cognition in the color domain. The second explains how recent studies of color recognition employing visual search tasks have clarified this relationship. This section also argues that these studies point to the existence of two separate systems that influence perception and categorization of color; one of which is linguistically based, and one of which is not affected by language. The third section critically evaluates recent claims that there are similarities between color terms in the world's languages that point to the existence of color universals. The fourth section examines children's color term acquisition in an attempt to trace the mechanisms bywhich color categories are acquired. It also discusses whether infants have an innate prepartitioned organization of color categories that is overridden during the learning process. The two final sections outline some outstanding questions, note some methodological constraints on the conclusions that can be drawn from the accumulated evidence, and argue that much more empirical investigation is still needed in this field

The application of aerospace technology to biomedical problems Quarterly report, 15 Jun. - 31 Aug. 1969

Applications of aerospace technology to biomedical problem

Biomedical applications of aerospace- generated technology Quarterly report, 1 Dec. 1968 - 28 Feb. 1969

Biomedical applications team for transferring aerospace generated technology to nonaerospace biomedical fiel

Student Suicide: Policies, Procedures, and Prevention Strategies

This poster presents legal issues related to student suicide on university and college campuses in the United States. Some of the key concepts include issues related to FERPA and liability; if an institution is responsible for preventing suicides; existence of a “special relationship” held between institutions and students in regards to suicide; and the idea of a duty to warn/notify. The poster presents recommendations for policies, procedures and prevention strategies for institutions of higher learning. A few highlighted cases with regard to student suicide include: Mahoney v. Alleghaney College, Jain v. Iowa, and Bogust v. Iverson

Squaring the Circle: The Cultural Relativity of 'Good' Shape

The Gestalt theorists of the early twentieth century proposed a psychological primacy for circles, squares and triangles over other shapes. They described them as 'good' shapes and the Gestalt premise has been widely accepted. Rosch (1973), for example, suggested that shape categories formed around these 'natural' prototypes irrespective of the paucity of shape terms in a language. Rosch found that speakers of a language lacking terms for any geometric shape nevertheless learnt paired-associates to these 'good' shapes more easily than to asymmetric variants. We question these empirical data in the light of the accumulation of recent evidence in other perceptual domains that language affects categorization. A cross-cultural investigation sought to replicate Rosch's findings with the Himba of Northern Namibia who also have no terms in their language for the supposedly basic shapes of circle, square and triangle. A replication of Rosch (1973) found no advantage for these 'good' shapes in the organization of categories. It was concluded that there is no necessary salience for circles, squares and triangles. Indeed, we argue for the opposite because these shapes are rare in nature. The general absence of straight lines and symmetry in the perceptual environment should rather make circles, squares and triangles unusual and, therefore, less likely to be used as prototypes in categorization tasks. We place shape as one of the types of perceptual input (in philosophical terms, 'vague') that is readily susceptible to effects of language variation

Validation of a commercial antibody to detect endogenous human nicastrin by immunoblot

Nicastrin (NCSTN) is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is part of the gamma-secretase complex. Gamma-secretase is a protease complex that cleaves type-I single-pass transmembrane proteins. There are many potential substrates for this complex, including NOTCH receptors and amyloid precursor proteins (APP). There are a number of commercial antibodies to nicastrin, but they do not agree on expected peptide size. We confirmed the specificity of a C-terminal binding rabbit anti-human antibody from Sigma-Aldrich (#N1660) using wildtype HEK293 cells and HEK293 cells deleted for nicastrin. The wildtype cells showed a prominent band at approximately 110 kDa. We confirmed this larger than expected sized was due to glycosylation by treating the lysate with peptide-N-glycosidase F (PNGase F), which reduced the band to less than 75 kDa. These data suggest that this polyclonal is specific for nicastrin and can detect endogenous levels of protein

Free-Sorting of Colors Across Cultures: Are there Universal Grounds for Grouping?

These studies examined naming and free-sorting behavior by informants speaking a wide range of languages, from both industrialized and traditional cultures. Groups of informants, whose color vocabularies varied from 5 to 12 basic terms, were given an unconstrained color grouping task to investigate whether there are systematic differences between cultures in grouping behavior that mirror linguistic differences and, if there are not, what underlying principles might explain any universal tendencies. Despite large differences in color vocabulary, there were substantial similarities in grouping behavior across language groups, and substantial within-language variation across informants. It seems that all informants group stimuli based on some criterion of perceptual similarity, but those with large color vocabularies are more likely to group stimuli in line with their basic color terms. The data are best accounted for by a hybrid system that combines a universal principle of grouping by similarity with culture-specific category salience

Biomedical applications of aerospace generated technology, task 1 Final report, 1 Jun. 1968 - 31 May 1969

Biomedical applications of aerospace generated technolog