Information transmission in spectral color naming

The concepts of information theory are applied in an analysis of color naming data where various numbers of response categories are permitted for the description of 21 spectral stimuli. The results are summarized by en empirical equation, T(x, y) = (N’−1)0.325−0.0017N’ where T(x, y) is the information transmitted through the subject (in bits) and N’ is the number of response categories used by the S. This function has a maximum value close to 2.6 bits. It is suggested that 28 response categories, corresponding to seven steps between adjacent hues of the color circle, constitute a good choke for experiments of this type.

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