Some kinds are both socially constructed and perceptible, such as gender and race. However, this gives rise to a puzzle that has been largely neglected in social constructionist accounts: how does culture shape and bias what we perceive? I argue that perceptual learning is the best explanation of our ability to perceive social kinds, in comparison to accounts that require a person acquire beliefs, theories, or concepts of the kind. I show how relatively simple causal factors known to influence perceptual learning in the laboratory can be extended to understand how culture shapes and biases perception. This account makes clear that the process of perceptual enculturation begins at a very early age, and does not in most cases require background beliefs on the part of the learner: the causal pathways by which perceptual learning occur suffice. It has significance for our understanding of how socially constructed kinds are culturally transmitted, as well as for how such kinds might be altered through interventions.

有些类型既是社会建构的，又是可感知的，例如性别和种族。然而，这引发了一个在社会建构主义的叙述中基本上被忽视的谜题：文化如何塑造和偏见我们所感知的事物？我认为，与要求一个人获得此类信念、理论或概念的账户相比，感知学习是我们对社会类型感知能力的最佳解释。我展示了如何扩展已知影响实验室感知学习的相对简单的因果因素，以理解文化如何塑造和偏向感知。这一解释清楚地表明，知觉文化化的过程从很小的时候就开始了，在大多数情况下不需要学习者的背景信念：知觉学习发生的因果途径就足够了。它对于我们理解社会构建的种类如何在文化上传播，以及如何通过干预来改变这些种类具有重要意义。