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Abstract:
For reasons not well understood, the color of a surface can
appear quite different when placed in different chromatic
surrounds. We explored the possibility that color contrast effects
are generated according to what the same or similar stimuli have
turned out to signify in the past about the physical relationships
between reflectance, illumination, and the spectral returns they
produce. This hypothesis was evaluated by (1) comparing the
physical relationships of reflectances, illuminants and spectral
returns with the perceptual phenomenology of color contrast; and
(2) testing whether perceptions of color contrast are predictably
changed by altering the probabilities of the possible sources of
the stimulus. Providing spectral information that was more
consistent with the targets arising from differently reflective
surfaces under different illuminants increased the illusion of
color contrast, whereas spectral information that was more
consistent with the targets arising from similarly reflective
surfaces under similar illuminants decreased color contrast, even
when the average spectral content of the scene remained unchanged.
These results we describe are consistent with a wholly empirical
explanation of color contrast effects.
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