COLOR AS A COGNITIVE AND CULTURAL CODE: A PSYCHOPHYSICAL PERSPECTIVE
Abstract
This article explores color as a psychophysical phenomenon and as a cognitive-cultural code embedded in language and symbolic systems. Drawing upon neurophysiology, psychophysics, cognitive linguistics, and cultural semiotics, the study examines the biological mechanisms of color perception and the ways color terms acquire symbolic meanings across cultures. The findings demonstrate that while color perception is grounded in universal neural processes, its semantic and symbolic interpretations are culturally constructed. Thus, color operates simultaneously as a biological response to light stimuli and as a cognitive framework shaped by collective experience.
References
1. Berlin, B., & Kay, P. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. University of California Press, 1969.
2. Chevalier, J., & Gheerbrant, A. Dictionary of Symbols. Penguin, 1996.
3. Eco, U. A Theory of Semiotics. Indiana University Press, 1976.
4. Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. Color Psychology: Effects of Perceiving Color on Psychological Functioning. Annual Review of Psychology, 2014.
5. Goldstein, E. B. Sensation and Perception. Cengage Learning, 2014.
6. Hurvich, L. M., & Jameson, D. An Opponent-Process Theory of Color Vision. Psychological Review, 1957.
7. Küller, R. Environmental Assessment from a Neuropsychological Perspective. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2009.
8. Land, E. H. The Retinex Theory of Color Vision. Scientific American, 1977.
9. Lüscher, M. The Lüscher Color Test. Random House, 1969.
10. Palmer, S. E. Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology. MIT Press, 1999.
11. Pastoureau, M. Black: The History of a Color. Princeton University Press, 2008.
12. Rosch, E. Cognitive Representations of Semantic Categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1975.
13. Khayitova D.M. Functions and methods of using coloronyms in literary texts // Modern American journal of Linguistics, Education and Pedagogy, 2025.
14. Zeki, S. A Vision of the Brain. Blackwell, 1993.
