Abstract: The relation between the color terms and color cognition is a core issue in domains of cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics since it concerns the relation between language and cognition. Up till now，3 distinctive theories on this issue have emerged. Color–term evolution theory advocated that color terms and color cognition were mutual independent，the hypothesis of linguistic reality held that color terms affected color cognition，the compromise view believed that color cognition of human had universal pattern but language and culture exerted some influences on color cognition.In this research，three hypothesis mentioned above were examined by 3 nation students.This 3 nations were Yi nation，Bai nation and Naxi nation，they all lived in Yunnan province located in southwest of China.
Method
238 undergraduate students（104 males and 133 females），they came from two universities of Yunnan province，took part in the Experiment. Among the students，85students （42males and 43females）came from Yi nation，93students（31males and 62 females）came from Bai nation，60 students（32males and 28 females）came from Naxi nation. The materials were 11 Chinese basic color terms：black，white，red，orange，yellow，green，blue，purple，palm，grey and pink.The subjects were asked to classify 11 color terms according to their own criterions. The outcomes of classifying were analysed by the method of multi-dimensional scaling .
Results
The results showed that 3 nations students’ classifying of basic color terms were consistent in general，but there were important culture differences in 3 nations stuents’classfying：⑴the numbers of category were different；⑵the categories of basic color terms were different；⑶the dimensions of the basic color terms’　semantic spaces were deferent，and ⑷the color terms of each category included and the number of color terms in each category were different also.These differences reflected the effects of cultures and languages on the cognition of color

Key words: Yi nation, Bai nation, Naxi nation, color terms, classification