这裙子到底是蓝黑还是白金？

6年前，一张裙子的照片火了，火的原因是：有人看裙子颜色是“白色+金色”，而有人看是“黑色+蓝色”。

时隔6年，这条“蓝黑白金裙”又引发热议了。所以，你看到的到底是蓝黑还是白金呢？

小彩蛋：6年前的你在干什么呢？没想到6年前的LR就已经走在吃瓜的前线了，那会儿是开始持续行动的第21天，你猜今天是第几天？2015年2月8日到2021年6月10日，第2315天啦！虽然排版惨不忍睹，甚至字体大小不一，但是我迈出了第一步，持续至今。那你开始行动了吗？ 👇

无注释原文：

Is The Dress blue and black or white and gold? The answer lies in vision psychology

The Guardian

Would you like to have an argument with your colleagues this fine Thursday? Just ask them what colour the dress above is. Some people say white and gold, whereas others claim it’s clearly blue and black. This rift in opinions has caused many people to doubt the sanity of themselves and their friends. Excitingly, it also offers some sort of insight into the famous old philosophical question: “is your red the same as my red?” But why are people so divided by this?

It appears to be because of different interpretations of how the scene is illuminated. The brain automatically “processes” visual input before we consciously perceive it. Differences in this processing between people may underlie The Great Dress Debate.

In our everyday lives, there are many changes in the colour of the light illuminating our surroundings. For example, the yellow glow of an incandescent light bulb versus the blue-ish hue of a fluorescent light. The light that an object reflects to the eye is a combination of both the colour of the object itself and the spectrum of the light source, which may vary. The brain is able to disentangle these two things and decide what colour the object is. Simply put, objects appear the same colour even if the light illuminating them changes – a concept known as colour constancy.

So, how does the brain keep colours constant? One way is by using reference points. For example, say you know your mug is white, but the light being reflected from the mug is slightly red. The brain can then discount a certain amount of red tint from the rest of the scene you are seeing. Other contextual knowledge may come into play, for example you are drinking coffee by the window at dawn. It makes sense for the light to be red-tinted as the illumination source is the sunrise. This is known as top-down processing. All of our perceptual experiences are informed by this kind of processing, resulting from context and previous knowledge.

This is possibly something you’ve never thought about or been aware of before - you may well underestimate just how much the lighting in our world changes, because your brain compensates for it so well. This happens automatically without any conscious awareness. But, colour constancy is not perfect. In The Dress photo, there aren’t many cues or reference points to tell us the properties of the light source. This leads to ambiguity and the possibility of different interpretations.

This image is a fascinating example of something on the edge of a perceptual boundary. Some people’s colour constancy is calibrated so that their brains tell them they are seeing gold and white, whereas some are lead to believe they see black and blue. Of course, the colour constancy mechanism is always learning, and due to top-down information (e.g. reading others’ opinions) this calibration could change and lead to another experience. This may be the driving force behind people experiencing a shift from seeing white and gold to blue and black.

Imagine how the world would look without colour constancy; objects would always be changing colour as you walked, say, through your house at different times of the day. I am currently doing research on the development of colour constancy in children within the Sussex Colour Group. Toddlers may experience a lower level of colour constancy than adults, making the world even more confusing for them. It has also been suggested that Monet was somehow able to disregard this automatic process in order to paint scenes showing how light progressed over the day. To most of us, the change in the colour of light over the day would be less noticeable.

There now appears to be good evidence that The Dress is in fact blue and black (but it’s always good to keep some scepticism regarding information on the internet). Therefore, arguably, people who originally saw it this way have better colour constancy. They were able to take cues from the background and compensate for the very unnatural illumination. There is evidence that people with good colour constancy also have better working memory (a part of short term memory dedicated to immediate perceptual processing) and that these two processes may be related.

Those who originally saw The Dress as blue and black should not be too smug, though. Some may argue that colour itself is just a construct imposed by the brain to make sense of the world. What enters the eye is just a spectrum of wavelengths of light, we turn that into something with category boundaries and labels and connotations. But one thing’s for certain; The Dress is a brilliant example of how breaking the perceptual system helps us to learn more about how our brains work.

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

Is The Dress blue and black or white and gold? The answer lies in vision psychology

The Guardian

Would you like to have an argument with your colleagues this fine Thursday? Just ask them what colour the dress above is. Some people say white and gold, whereas others claim it's clearly blue and black. This rift in opinions has caused many people to doubt the sanity of themselves and their friends. Excitingly, it also offers some sort of insight into the famous old philosophical question: “is your red the same as my red?” But why are people so divided by this?

你想在这个美好的周四与你的同事发生争执吗？那就问他们上面的衣服是什么颜色。有些人说是白色和金色，而另一些人则声称这显然是蓝色和黑色。这种意见上的分歧使许多人怀疑自己和朋友的脑子是否正常了。令人兴奋的是，它也为著名的古老哲学问题提供了某种启示。“你的红色和我的红色一样吗？”但为什么人们对此有如此大的分歧？

表示“尽管；但是；却”，英文解释为“compared with the fact that; but”举个🌰：

He must be about 40, whereas his wife looks about 30.

他肯定有40岁上下了，可他妻子看起来只有30岁左右。

表示“（人际关系的）裂痕；分歧，不和”，英文解释为“a serious disagreement that separates two people who have been friends and stops their friendship continuing”举个🌰：

The marriage caused a rift between the brothers and they didn't speak to each other for ten years.

这桩婚姻致使兄弟之间的关系出现裂痕，彼此10年都没有说话。

1）表示“明智；理智；通情达理”，英文解释为“the state of being sensible and reasonable”举个🌰：

After a series of road accidents the police pleaded for sanity among drivers.

在发生一系列交通事故之后，警方提请驾驶人要谨慎驾车。

2）表示“精神健全；神志正常”，英文解释为“the state of having a normal healthy mind”举个🌰：

His behaviour was so strange that I began to doubt his sanity.

他行为怪异，我有点怀疑他是否神智正常。

1）表示“哲学的”，英文解释为“Philosophical means concerned with or relating to philosophy.”举个🌰：

He was more accustomed to cocktail party chatter than to political or philosophical discussions.

比起政治或者哲学讨论，他更习惯于鸡尾酒会上的闲谈。

2）表示“泰然自若的；处乱不惊的；达观的”，英文解释为“Someone who is philosophical does not get upset when disappointing or disturbing things happen.”举个🌰：

He has grown philosophical about life.

他对生活已经变得豁达了。

It appears to be because of different interpretations of how the scene is illuminated. The brain automatically “processes” visual input before we consciously perceive it. Differences in this processing between people may underlie The Great Dress Debate.

这似乎是因为对场景如何被照亮的不同解释。在我们有意识地感知它之前，大脑会自动“处理”视觉输入。人与人之间在这种处理上的差异可能是“裙子大辩论”的基础。

表示“解释，阐释；理解”，英文解释为“an explanation or opinion of what something means”举个🌰：

The rules are vague and open to interpretation.

规则很含糊，可作各种诠释。

1）表示“照亮”，英文解释为“To illuminate something means to shine light on it and to make it brighter and more visible.”举个🌰：

No streetlights illuminated the street.

一盏照亮街道的路灯也没有。

2）表示“阐明”，英文解释为“If you illuminate something that is unclear or difficult to understand, you make it clearer by explaining it carefully or giving information about it.”举个🌰：

Instead of formulas and charts, the two instructors use games and drawings to illuminate their subject.

这两位教师用游戏和图画而不是公式和图表来阐明他们的题旨。

3）形容词：illuminating，表示“富有启发性的”，举个🌰：

It would be illuminating to hear the views of the club vice-chairman. 

听听俱乐部副主席的观点或许会有启发。

🎬电影《哈利·波特与混血王子》（Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince）中的台词提到：And I thought perhaps you could illuminate me. 或许您可以指点我一下。

1）表示“感知，察觉，注意到，意识到”，英文解释为“to see something or someone, or to notice something that is obvious”举个🌰：

He perceived a tiny figure in the distance.

他注意到远处有个很小的身影。

2）表示“认为；看待；视为”，英文解释为“to come to an opinion about something, or have a belief about something”举个🌰：

How do the French perceive the British?

法国人是如何看待英国人的？

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述比特币的文章中提到：Scarcity is a trait of many things that are perceived to have value. 稀缺性正是许多被视为有价值的事物共有的特征。

表示“是…的深层原因；对…有重大影响”，英文解释为“to be a hidden cause of or strong influence on something”举个🌰：

Psychological problems very often underlie apparently physical disorders.

心理问题常常是明显生理疾病的深层原因。

In our everyday lives, there are many changes in the colour of the light illuminating our surroundings. For example, the yellow glow of an incandescent light bulb versus the blue-ish hue of a fluorescent light. The light that an object reflects to the eye is a combination of both the colour of the object itself and the spectrum of the light source, which may vary. The brain is able to disentangle these two things and decide what colour the object is. Simply put, objects appear the same colour even if the light illuminating them changes – a concept known as colour constancy.

在我们的日常生活中，照亮我们周围环境光线的颜色有很多变化。例如，白炽灯的黄色光芒与荧光灯的蓝色色调。一个物体反射到眼睛的光线是物体本身的颜色和光源的光谱的组合，这两者可能有所不同。大脑能够分解这两样东西并决定物体是什么颜色。简单地说，即使照亮物体的光线发生变化，物体看起来也是同样的颜色--这个概念被称为颜色恒常性（color constancy）。

incandescent /ˌɪnkænˈdɛsənt/ 1）表示“白炽的，白热的”，英文解释为“producing a bright light from a heated filament or other part”如：an incandescent lamp 白炽灯；

2）表示“十分明亮的；耀眼的”，英文解释为“very bright”举个🌰：

The mountain's snow-white peak was incandescent against the blue sky.

雪白的山顶在蓝天的映衬下十分耀眼。

经常看到缩写vs，vs.或者是单单一个v，就是指的versus，表示“（比较两种不同想法、选择等）与…相对，与…相比”，英文解释为“used to compare two different ideas, choices, etc.”如：private education versus state education 私立教育与公共教育相比，举个🌰：

It is France versus Brazil in the final.

决赛是法国队对巴西队。

表示“颜色；色度；色调”，英文解释为“a colour; a particular shade of a colour”举个🌰：

His face took on an unhealthy whitish hue.

他的脸上透出一丝病态的苍白。

🎬电影《恶老板2》（Horrible Bosses 2）中的台词提到：就因为我的肤色 我就知道从哪儿拿到...？Because of the hue of my skin I know where to get ...?

fluorescent /fləˈresnt/ 表示“荧光的，发荧光的；发亮的”，英文解释为“Fluorescent lights are very bright, tube-shaped electric lights, often used in offices.”如：fluorescent lighting 荧光照明。

spectrum /ˈspɛktrəm/ 1）表示“范围；各层次；系列；幅度”，英文解释为“a complete or wide range of related qualities, ideas, etc.”如：a broad spectrum of interests 广泛的兴趣范围，举个🌰：

disentangle /ˌdɪsɪnˈtæŋɡəl/ 表示“使脱离；使摆脱；分开；理顺，分清”，英文解释为“to separate things that have become joined or confused”举个🌰：

It's difficult to disentangle hard fact from myth, or truth from lies.

要分清事实与神话、真理与谎言并不是一件容易的事。

So, how does the brain keep colours constant? One way is by using reference points. For example, say you know your mug is white, but the light being reflected from the mug is slightly red. The brain can then discount a certain amount of red tint from the rest of the scene you are seeing. Other contextual knowledge may come into play, for example you are drinking coffee by the window at dawn. It makes sense for the light to be red-tinted as the illumination source is the sunrise. This is known as top-down processing. All of our perceptual experiences are informed by this kind of processing, resulting from context and previous knowledge.

那么，大脑是如何保持颜色不变的呢？一种方法是通过使用参考点。例如，假设你知道你的杯子是白色的，但从杯子上反射出来的光线却略带红色。大脑就可以从你所看到的其他场景中扣除一定量的红色色调。其他情境知识可能会发挥作用，例如，你黎明时分在窗边喝咖啡。由于照明源是日出，所以光线是红色的是有道理的。这就是所谓的自上而下加工处理。我们所有的知觉经验都是由这种处理方式提供的，是由情境和原先的知识造成的。

表示“认为…不重要；对…不全信；低估；忽视，忽略，不理会”，英文解释为“to think or say that sth is not important or not true”举个🌰：

However, traders tended to discount the rumour.

但是，商人们倾向于不理会这个传闻。

表示“色调；淡色彩；（一层）淡色，浅色”，英文解释为“a shade or small amount of a particular colour; a faint colour covering a surface”如：the brownish tint of an old photo 旧照片的淡褐色。

表示“上下文的；与上下文有关的；与语境相关的”，英文解释为“connected with a particular context”举个🌰：

It's impossible to understand the nuances of an isolated word without some contextual clues.

没有上下文提示不可能弄清单个单词意义上的细微差别。

表示“感知的；知觉的”，英文解释为“relating to the ability to notice something or come to an opinion about something using your senses”举个🌰：

Perceptual skills are particularly important in sports.

在体育运动中，感知能力尤为重要。

This is possibly something you've never thought about or been aware of before - you may well underestimate just how much the lighting in our world changes, because your brain compensates for it so well. This happens automatically without any conscious awareness. But, colour constancy is not perfect. In The Dress photo, there aren't many cues or reference points to tell us the properties of the light source. This leads to ambiguity and the possibility of different interpretations.

这可能是你以前从未想过或意识到的事情--你很可能低估了我们世界的光照变化有多大，因为你的大脑对它的补偿非常好。这是在没有任何意识的情况下自动发生的。但是，颜色恒常性并不完美。在“裙子”照片中，没有很多线索或参考点来告诉我们光源的特性。这导致了模糊性和不同解释的可能性。

表示“弥补，补偿”，英文解释为“to provide something good or useful in place of something or to make someone feel better about something that has failed or been lost or missed”举个🌰：

Nothing will ever compensate for his lost childhood.

什么也不能弥补他失去的童年。

1）表示“歧义；一语多义”，英文解释为“the state of having more than one possible meaning”；

2）表示“模棱两可的词；含混不清的语句”，英文解释为“a word or statement that can be understood in more than one way”。

This image is a fascinating example of something on the edge of a perceptual boundary. Some people's colour constancy is calibrated so that their brains tell them they are seeing gold and white, whereas some are lead to believe they see black and blue. Of course, the colour constancy mechanism is always learning, and due to top-down information (e.g. reading others' opinions) this calibration could change and lead to another experience. This may be the driving force behind people experiencing a shift from seeing white and gold to blue and black.

这张照片是一个吸引人的例子，说明在感知边界的边缘的东西。有些人的颜色恒常性是经过校准的，所以他们的大脑告诉他们，他们看到的是金色和白色，而有些人则被引导相信他们看到的是黑色和蓝色。当然，颜色恒常机制一直在学习，由于自上而下的信息（如阅读他人的意见），这种校准可能会改变，导致另一种体验。这可能是人们经历从看到白色和金色到蓝色和黑色转变的驱动力。

表示“标定，校准（刻度，以使测量准确）”，英文解释为“to mark units of measurement on an instrument such as a thermometer so that it can be used for measuring sth accurately”。

Imagine how the world would look without colour constancy; objects would always be changing colour as you walked, say, through your house at different times of the day. I am currently doing research on the development of colour constancy in children within the Sussex Colour Group. Toddlers may experience a lower level of colour constancy than adults, making the world even more confusing for them. It has also been suggested that Monet was somehow able to disregard this automatic process in order to paint scenes showing how light progressed over the day. To most of us, the change in the colour of light over the day would be less noticeable.

想象一下，如果没有颜色恒常性，世界会是什么样子；比如说，当你在一天中的不同时间走过你的房子时，物体总是在改变颜色。我目前正在萨塞克斯颜色小组内对儿童的颜色恒常性的发展进行研究。幼儿的颜色恒常性水平可能比成人低，这使得世界对他们来说更加令人困惑。也有人认为，莫奈（Monet）在某种程度上能够无视这一自动过程，以画出显示光线在一天中如何发展的场景。对我们大多数人来说，光线的颜色在一天中的变化是不太明显的。

toddler /ˈtɒdlə/ 表示“学步的儿童”，英文解释为“A toddler is a young child who has only just learned to walk or who still walks unsteadily with small, quick steps.”举个🌰：

I had a toddler at home and two other children at school.

我有一个刚学步的孩子在家中，另外两个孩子在学校。

🎬电影《相助》（The Help）中的台词提到：She's trying to blame it on a toddler. 她想把错赖在小孩子身上。

表示“不理会；不顾；漠视；对…置之不理”，英文解释为“to not consider sth; to treat sth as unimportant”举个🌰：

Safety rules were disregarded.

安全规定被忽视了。

There now appears to be good evidence that The Dress is in fact blue and black (but it's always good to keep some scepticism regarding information on the internet). Therefore, arguably, people who originally saw it this way have better colour constancy. They were able to take cues from the background and compensate for the very unnatural illumination. There is evidence that people with good colour constancy also have better working memory (a part of short term memory dedicated to immediate perceptual processing) and that these two processes may be related.

现在似乎有很好的证据表明，“裙子”实际上是蓝色和黑色的（但对互联网上的信息保持一些怀疑态度总是好的）。因此，可以说，最初以这种方式看到它的人有更好的颜色恒常性。他们能够从背景中获取线索，并对非常不自然的照明进行补偿。有证据表明，颜色恒常性好的人也有更好的工作记忆（短期记忆的一部分，专门用于即时感知处理），这两个过程可能是相关的。

表示“怀疑态度；怀疑主义；怀疑”，英文解释为“Scepticism is great doubt about whether something is true or useful.”

Those who originally saw The Dress as blue and black should not be too smug, though. Some may argue that colour itself is just a construct imposed by the brain to make sense of the world. What enters the eye is just a spectrum of wavelengths of light, we turn that into something with category boundaries and labels and connotations. But one thing's for certain; The Dress is a brilliant example of how breaking the perceptual system helps us to learn more about how our brains work.

不过，那些最初看到“裙子”是蓝色和黑色的人不应该太自以为是。有些人可能会争辩说，颜色本身只是大脑为了理解世界而强加的一种构造。进入眼睛的只是特定波长的光，我们把它变成具有类别界限、标签和含义的东西。但有一点是肯定的；“裙子”是一个出色的例子，说明打破感知系统有助于我们更多地了解我们的大脑如何工作。

表示“自满的，自鸣得意的，沾沾自喜的”，英文解释为“showing too much satisfaction with your own cleverness or success – used to show disapproval”。

表示“内涵意义；含义；隐含意义”，英文解释为“The connotations of a particular word or name are the ideas or qualities which it makes you think of.”举个🌰：

It's just one of those words that's got so many negative connotations.

它只是那些有很多负面内涵意义的词之一。

谢谢你看到这里呀

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