Colour perception changes with basic colour word comprehension

Recent work has investigated the origin of infant colour categories, showing pre-linguistic infants categorise colour even in the absence of colour words. These infant categories are similar but not identical to adult categories, giving rise to an important question about how infant colour perception changes with the learning of colour words. Here we present two novel paradigms in which 12- and 19-month-old participants learning English as their first language were assessed on their perception of colour, while data on their colour word comprehension were also collected. Results indicate that participants' perception of colours close to the colour category boundaries dramatically change after colour word learning. The results highlight the shift made from infant colour categories to adult-like linguistically mediated colour categories that accompanies colour word learning.

Research Highlights

• We aimed to test whether colour perception is linguistically mediated in infants.
• We used novel eye-tracking and pupillometry paradigms to test infant colour perception either side of learning colour words.
• Infants' discrimination of colour changes after learning colour words, suggesting a shift due to colour word learning.
• A shift from pre-linguistic colour representation to linguistically mediated colour representation is discussed.

     

A new goodness-of-fit measure for probit models: Surrogate R2

Probit models are used extensively for inferential purposes in the social sciences as discrete data are prevalent in a vast body of social studies. Among many accompanying model inference problems, a critical question remains unsettled: how to develop a goodness-of-fit measure that resembles the ordinary least square (OLS) R² used for linear models. Such a measure has long been sought to achieve ‘comparability’ of different empirical models across multiple samples addressing similar social questions. To this end, we propose a novel R² measure for probit models using the notion of surrogacy – simulating a continuous variable $S$ as a surrogate of the original discrete response (Liu & Zhang, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 113, 845 and 2018). The proposed R² is the proportion of the variance of the surrogate response explained by explanatory variables through a linear model, and we call it a surrogate R². This paper shows both theoretically and numerically that the surrogate R² approximates the OLS R² based on the latent continuous variable, preserves the interpretation of explained variation, and maintains monotonicity between nested models. As no other pseudo R², McKelvey and Zavoina's and McFadden's included, can meet all the three criteria simultaneously, our measure fills this crucial void in probit model inference.     

How to separate coordinate and categorical spatial relation components in integrated spatial representations: A new methodology for analysing sketch maps

Spatial relations between landmarks can be represented by means of categories and coordinates. In the present research, this paradigm was applied to sketch maps based on information acquired in goal-directed behaviour of exploration of a university campus area. The first aim was to investigate whether categorical and coordinate information can be considered conceptually independent in sketch maps. The second aim was to assess which kind of distance measure served better to represent coordinate information in the present case study, and finally to assess the factorial structure of coordinate and categorical data. Analytic methodology as well as statistical analysis were found to confirm that separating coordinate and categorical components was formally as well as empirically appropriate. A series of confirmatory factor analyses showed the best fit for the model with two correlated components, as well as an acceptable reliability of measures emerged. The two components were moderately correlated. Moreover, the adoption of Manhattan distance seemed to be the most effective method to represent coordinate spatial relations in spatial sketch maps of areas acquired through navigation.