Reaching coherent color categories through communication

The paper examines the formation of color categories and color terms in a population of autonomous individuals, i.e. simulated agents. Each agent is modeled to perceive color stimuli, to categorize the stimuli and to lexicalize the categories in order to communicate with other agents in the population. During these interactions the agents adapt their internal representations to be more successful in future interactions. The categorization of the color perception is individualistic and influenced only by the nature of the agents’ perception and its environment. The color categories can be associated with word forms with which the agents communicate color meanings. The pressure to successfully convey color meaning gives rise not only to coherent color lexicons, but also to a coherent categorization of color perception. The results add to the view that certain aspects of language behave as complex dynamic systems, benefiting from self-organization and cultural interactions.