Color Perception Research in PNAS

^{January 14, 2006}
According to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in January by Aubrey Gilbert, Terry Regier, ICSI's Paul Kay, and Richard Ivry, language affects visual perception -- but for the most part, only in the right half of the visual field. This makes sense hypothetically because the left hemisphere of the brain processes language, and receives visual information from the right side of the visual field. Regier, a frequent visitor to ICSI, suggested a study to test this hypothesis. Gilbert and Ivry of UC Berkeley led the experiments, which confirmed Regier's hypothesis. The study built on previous studies by Paul Kay and his colleagues regarding the influence of language on the perception of color.