PSYB51H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Trichromacy, Wavelength, Color Theory
Document Summary
Newton: prisms break up (refract) white light into spectral components (rainbow) Any single component could not be refracted into a different color (monochromatic. 2nd prism combining all the colors would re-create while light. We perceive the continuum of wavelengths as qualitatively different phenomena colors: because color has qualitative differences, we make up in our mind. With color, we perceive something that doesn"t exist. We are efficient and good at it even thoguh the task is. Problem of univariance: an infinite set of different wavelength intensity combinations can elicit exactly the same response from a single type of photoreceptor: one type of photoreceptor cannot make color discriminations based on wave length. Also responds differently depending on light energy. Only the response of a receptor will tell us something about what light we are looking at. The output of one cone is completely ambiguous. Young-helmhortz (maxwell) theory: theory of trichromatic color vision based on 3 photoreceptors sensitive to particular ranges of wavelength.
