Tyndall's paradox of hue discrimination.

We confirm a remarkable but forgotten property of human color vision that was described over 50 years ago by Tyndall [J. Opt. Soc. Am 23, 12 (1933)]: if wavelength discrimination is measured in the region of 455 nm, the sensitivity of the eye improves when a large fraction of the monochromatic light in each half of the matching field is replaced by white light that is common to the two halves. We demonstrate that a similar facilitation also occurs when the shortwave monochromatic components are held constant in luminance and a long-wave desaturant of increasing luminance is added to the shortwave discrimanda. We relate these phenomena to the properties of postreceptoral visual channels.

[1]  D. Baylor,et al.  Spectral sensitivity of cones of the monkey Macaca fascicularis. , 1987, The Journal of physiology.

[2]  K. Naka,et al.  An attempt to analyse colour reception by electrophysiology , 1966, The Journal of physiology.

[3]  J. J. Vos,et al.  On the derivation of the foveal receptor primaries. , 1971, Vision research.

[4]  J. Mollon,et al.  Colour illusion and evidence for interaction between cone mechanisms , 1975, Nature.

[5]  G. Haase.  Bestimmung der Farbtonempfindlichkeit des menschlichen Auges bei verschiedenen Helligkeiten und Sättigungen. Bau eines empfindlichen Farbpyrometers , 1934 .

[6]  M. A. Bouman,et al.  Color discrimination data , 1972 .

[7]  R. M. Boynton,et al.  Role of the blue mechanism in wavelength discrimination , 1985, Vision Research.

[8]  C. Cavonius,et al.  18 – π-Mechanisms and Cone Fundamentals , 1978 .

[9]  R. Weale.  Hue‐discrimination in para‐central parts of the human retina measured at different luminance levels , 1951, The Journal of physiology.

[10]  W. D. Wright.  The characteristics of tritanopia. , 1952, Journal of the Optical Society of America.

[11]  K. Mccree.  Small-field Tritanopia and the Effects of Voluntary Fixation , 1960 .

[12]  Robert M. Boynton,et al.  Chromatic difference steps of moderate size measured along theoretically critical axes , 1980 .

[13]  E. Tyndall.  Chromaticity Sensibility to Wave-Length Difference as a Function of Purity* , 1933 .

[14]  J. J. Vos,et al.  An analytical description of the line element in the zone-fluctuation model of colour vision. II. The derivation of the line element. , 1972, Vision Research.

[15]  G. J. Burton,et al.  The organization of human colour vision at the central fovea. , 1972, Vision research.

[16]  W. Stiles,et al.  Interim Report to the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage, Zurich, 1955, on the National Physical Laboratory's Investigation of Colour-matching (1955) , 1955 .

[17]  W. D. Wright,et al.  Colour Sensitivity of the Fovea Centralis , 1945, Nature.

[18]  The Action Spectra of Rods and Red-and Green-Sensitive Cones of the Monkey Macaca Fascicularis , 1985 .

[19]  J. Mollon,et al.  Human visual pigments: microspectrophotometric results from the eyes of seven persons , 1983, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[20]  C. Cavonius,et al.  Human color perception and stiles' π mechanisms , 1977, Vision Research.

[21]  W. D. Wright,et al.  Hue-discrimination in normal colour-vision , 1934 .

[22]  D. L. Macadam.  Visual Sensitivities to Color Differences in Daylight , 1942 .

[23]  H. Sperling.  Case of congenital tritanopia with implications for a trichromatic model of color reception. , 1960, Journal of the Optical Society of America.

[24]  W D Wright,et al.  The colour sensitivity of the retina within the central fovea of man , 1947, The Journal of physiology.

[25]  W. Stiles.  Increment thresholds and the mechanisms of colour vision. , 1949, Documenta ophthalmologica. Advances in ophthalmology.

[26]  W. Stiles,et al.  N.P.L. Colour-matching Investigation: Final Report (1958) , 1959 .

[27]  J D Mollon,et al.  Reversed effect of adapting stimuli on visual sensitivity , 1980, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[28]  J. Pokorny,et al.  Spectral sensitivity of the foveal cone photopigments between 400 and 500 nm , 1975, Vision Research.

[29]  Olga Steindler.  Die Farbenempfindlichkeit des normalen und farbenblinden Auges , 2022 .

[30]  C. Dieterici,et al.  Ueber die Empfindlichkeit des normalen Auges für Wellenlängenunterschiede des Lichtes , 1884 .

[31]  Leo Maurice Hurvich,et al.  Color vision , 1981 .

[32]  J. Mollon,et al.  A theory of theΠ1 andΠ3 color mechanisms of stiles , 1979, Vision Research.

[33]  L. Spillmann,et al.  17 – Increment Thresholds: Sensitization Produced by Hue Differences1 , 1978 .