Color plays an important role in conveying visual information, but the language we use to express what we see is limited. Recent studies show that color terms used in Japanese also change over time.

This segment discusses the importance of selecting rich and specific vocabulary to be able to best communicate ideas. Students analyze how language functions in different contexts. Students determine ...

In a new study, biology and psychology researchers show how existing color vocabularies constrain future options for efficient color vocabularies. Suppose two speakers of the same language are playing ...

When we open our eyes, a myriad of colors immediately appear before us. But they are not merely a decoration of our visual world; they enable us to identify objects, materials, and substances in our ...

When Luisa Maffi was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1980s and early 1990s, she helped redefine what we talk about when we talk about color. Together with her ...

Go to a paint store, and you'll be overwhelmed by the choices, from Aspen Bark White to Zydeco Purple. But it turns out that early humans probably had words for just two colors, and many ...

Try to imagine reddish green — not the dull brown you get when you mix the two pigments together, but rather a color that is somewhat like red and somewhat like green. Or, instead, try to picture ...

Suppose two speakers of the same language are playing a guessing game where each has the same color swatches, and Player 1 tries to get Player 2 to guess a hue by naming the color. If the second ...

Try to imagine reddish green — not the dull brown you get when you mix the two pigments together, but rather a color that is somewhat like red and somewhat like green. Or, instead, try to picture ...