Colour Perception and Spatial Vision wk3 Flashcards
The dress explanations
- different angles
- different naming of colours / fixed answers
- colour blindness
- individual differences in colour processing
- individual differences in experience
-failure in colour constancy
consequence of overexposed images
- measured colours being different from the real image
how can viewing conditions cause variations in perceived colour?
- when theres a change in image size and viewing angle
- under lab settings (neutral light source) it was found that the same answers were given , so viewing conditions is insig
Problems naming colours
- Subjective experience of colour may be the same , when forced to choose= different names
- however when given a flexible choice (colour swatches) there was still two distinct answers
- so experience of colours is different
Visible spectrum
- Our conscious experience is purely dependant on cells that are sensitive to particular wavelengths of light
- This is called the visible spectrum
how many cones are involved in daylight vision?
- three types of cone receptors sensitive to and respond to red green and blue
- these pick up different frequencies of light then pass info into the LGN
which respond to a wide range of colours
-but respond maximally to their own, firing more strongly
how many rods are involved in night vision?
only one rod photoreceptor, explaining why we are colourblind at night and cannot differentiate between colours
Animals and cone types
- most mammals have only two cones
- other animals have multiple cone types
- snakes can see infra red (we dont because we are cold blooded)
- birds and insects see ultra violet (hurts eyes over long period, so we screen these out)
one cone type (monochromat)
can see a range of colours but not discriminate between them
two cone types (dichromats)
can discriminate these colours but no others
three cone types (trichromats)
can discriminate all possible colours in the visible spectrum
Colour blindness in gender
- red-green cone is carried on the X chromosone
- so this colour blindness is more common in men than women
- some women have 4 chone types (tetrachromats)
Rod cmonochromats
- truly colorblind
- cannot see in daylight
what can colour blindness be caused by?
mistuned cone types
cerebral achromatopsia
what is the result of mistuned cone types?
- inability to discriminate between colours, most likely mistuned green cones
- this means cones for e.g. red dont fire maximally at a certain wavelength
how can cerebral achromatopsia result in colour cortical blindness?
- damage to V8 (via e.g. stroke)
- we still have the ability to process colours at the level of the retina +LGN but cannot consciously perceive or differentiate between colours because of damage
- can still detect brightness
what is colour-opponent processing?
- the visual system processes complementary colours in pairs
- we have two colour systems
1. the luminance + Blue/Yellow system
2. recent adaptation of a newer Red Green system (adaptation of the yellow part of the older system)
How does colour opponency work?
-The visual system construct red receptive fields from the output of red AND green photoreceptors
- We then compare the ratio between red and green
for yellow, we combine the output of red and green to creates luminance info
- This also gives us info about yellow which is then fed into the output from the blue to create a receptive field comparing yellow and blue
what do the centre-surround properties of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) provide?
the mechanism for colour constancy, by calculating the ratio of colours to provide edge detection
How can our opponent processing affect colour perception
- what people see as neutral varies between colours
- individual variations in peoples colour-opponency systems explain differences in colour perception
what does inhibition over space and time suggest for colour perceptions?
-spatial context and lighting can affect colour perceptions, due to lateral inhibition compressing information about colour
- simultaneous contrast illusions
colour after-effects
what does inhibition over time and time suggest for colour perceptions?
- temporal context can affect colour perception
- e.g. you look at a colour for a long period of time (to save energy) active cells are turned off/inhibited
- so we see opposite colours
what do colour centre-surround cells in the retina transmit?
- only the colour edges, which allows the cortex to reconstruct the colour body of objects
- means surrounding colours might facilitate “filling-in” due to excitation in the cortex, altering our perception of colours
why is individual differences in experience not a valid explanation for colour perception
- Whilst we there may be individual difference in how we experience colour, these aren’t long lasting
- Asking people under laboratory settings to name the colour we still get a 50/50 split of colour