Most empirical work on color constancy is based on simple laboratory models of natural viewing conditions. These typically consist of spots seen against uniform backgrounds or computer simulations of flat surfaces seen under spatially uniform illumination. We report measurements made under more natural viewing conditions. The experiments were conducted in a room where the illumination was under computer control. Observers used a projection colorimeter to set asymmetric color matches across a spatial illumination gradient. Observers' matches can be described by either of two simple models. One model posits gain control in one-specific pathways. This diagonal model may be linked to ideas about the action of early visual mechanisms. The other model posits that the observer estimates and corrects for changes in illumination but does so imperfectly. This equivalent illuminant model provides a link between human performance and computational models of color constancy.

Color constancy is often modeled on the assumption that color appearance in natural scenes is a function of the visual system's estimates of surface reflectance. Some stimuli, however, do not look like illuminated surfaces. Instead, they appear to be self-luminous. We hypothesized that the appearance of luminosity occurs when the visual system estimates a reflectance spectrum that is outside the gamut of physically realizable surfaces. To test this idea, we measured luminosity thresholds as a function of stimulus chromaticity and illuminant spectral power distribution. Observers adjusted the luminance of a test patch until it just appeared selfluminous. The test patch was spot illuminated by a computer-controlled projection colorimeter viewed in an experimental room lit diffusely by computer-controlled theater lamps. Luminosity thresholds were determined for a number of test patch chromaticities under five experimental illuminants. The luminosity thresholds define a surface in color space. The shape of this surface depends on the illuminant. We were able to describe much of the luminosity threshold variation with a simple model whose parameters define an equivalent illuminant. In the context of our model, the equivalent illuminant may be interpreted as the illuminant perceived by the observer. As part of our model calculations we generalized the classic notion of optimal stimuli by incorporating linear-model constraints. Given the equivalent illuminant, the model predicts that a patch will appear self-luminous when it is not consistent with any physically realizable surface seen under that illuminant. In addition, we show that much of the variation of the equivalent illuminant with the physical illuminant can be modeled with a simple linearity principle. The fact that our model provides a good account of our data extends the physics-based approach to judgments of self-luminosity. This in turn might be taken as support for the notion that the visual system has internalized the physics of reflectance.

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Achromatic adjustment has been used widely to study color context effects. In the achromatic adjustment procedure, an observer adjusts a test stimulus until it appears black, gray, or white. By its nature, achromatic adjustment directly measures the effect of context only for stimuli that appear gray. We present achromatic loci measured in two contexts and asymmetric color matches measured across the same two contexts. The results indicate that achromatic adjustments, together with a gain-control model, may be used to make accurate predictions of the chromaticity of asymmetric matches. Thus measurements of the effect of context for test stimuli that appear gray may be used to predict the effect of context for stimuli that appear colored. The experiments also indicate that accurate prediction depends on ensuring that observers use similar fixational strategies for the two judgments.