[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Biological origins of color categorization

## Details

**Authors** Skelton et al.

**Year** 2017

**Publisher** Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

**Discipline** Psychology

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1612881114) 
10.1073/pnas.1612881114

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Significance Humans parse the continuum of color into discrete categories (e.g., “red” and “blue”), and the origin of these categories has been debated for many decades. Here, we provide evidence that infants have color categories for red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. We show that infants’ categorical distinctions align strikingly with those that are commonly made in the world’s different color lexicons. We also find that infants’ categorical distinctions relate to the activities of the two neural subsystems responsible for the early stages of color representation. These findings suggest that color categorization is partly organized and constrained by the biological mechanisms of color vision and not arbitrarily constructed by language.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To test whether color-category boundaries originate in biological visual mechanisms rather than being arbitrarily constructed by language.

### What they found (results)

4–6-month-old infants (n=179) recognized five color categories whose boundaries align with those recurring across the world's languages, indicating a biological origin for where the boundary is drawn.

## Commentary

### In short

The mind draws discrete category boundaries onto a physically continuous spectrum (identity vs. other).

### In more detail

Prelinguistic infants impose discrete category boundaries on the physically continuous color spectrum, showing distinction-making (identity/other) is a built-in perceptual act, not a product of language. Purpose: To test whether color-category boundaries originate in biological visual mechanisms rather than being arbitrarily constructed by language. Finding: 4–6-month-old infants (n=179) recognized five color categories whose boundaries align with those recurring across the world's languages, indicating a biological origin for where the boundary is drawn. [Added 2026-07-30 as new evidence beyond the original 109; DSRP structural basis: D axiom (Definition of Distinction / Coimplication): a continuous gradient is cut into identity vs other by an innately biased boundary.]

**Patterns it shows** D

**Added** 2026-07-30

**How to cite this** Skelton et al. (2017). Biological origins of color categorization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).