Investigations of perception and imagery using CAEs: The role of experimental design and psychophysical method

Orientation-contingent color aftereffects (CAEs) were measured using 174 observers ran-domly allocated to one of eight experimental conditions formed by the factorial combination of three two-level factors. These were experimental design (pretest and posttest measures taken vs. posttest measures taken alone), psychophysical method (forced-choice vs. magnitude estimation), and inspection procedure (inspection of real contours vs. inspection of imagined contours). In addition to color responses, written introspective reports of the strategies used in providing color responses were obtained. As a basis for the rejection of observers using inappropriate strategies, reported strategies were coded as appropriate or inappropriate. An analysis of the color reports of all observers was performed, as well as two analyses of the color reports of only those observers identified as using appropriate response strategies. In all cases, the results showed that CAEs were reported after inspection of real contours irrespective of the experimental design or psychophysical method used. There were no significant CAEs reported in any conditions that involved the imagination of contours. A separate analysis of the relationship between observers’ response strategies, the coding of these strategies, and observers’ actual color reports revealed some problems concerning the use of such introspective techniques. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of theoretical assumptions about the nature of imagery and perception.