PSYB51H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Color Constancy, Color Blindness, Color Theory
Document Summary
Newton discovered that prisms break up (refract) white light into spectral components (rainbow: light is composed on spectral components that cannot be broken into parts. Monochromatic (colours): any single component cannot be broken into parts/other colours. Second prism combining all the colours would re-create white light. We perceive the continuum of wavelengths as qualitatively different phenomena. Colour is created in our minds different dimensions. Colour allo(cid:449)s us to per(cid:272)ei(cid:448)e so(cid:373)ethi(cid:374)g that does(cid:374)(cid:859)t e(cid:454)ist. Humans are extraordinarily good and efficient at perceiving colour, even when the task is ambiguous. Without colour cues, it is hard to detect objects. Univariance: an infinite set of different wavelength-intensity combinations can elicit exactly the same response from a single type of photoreceptor: problem any kind of colour can elicit the same response from a single type of photoreceptor. One type of photoreceptor cannot make colour discriminations based on wavelength: responds differently depending on wavelength and light energy.
