Light dominates colour preference when correlated colour temperature differs

Abstract

Colour preference of lighting is generally influenced by three kinds of contextual factors, which are the features of light, object and observer. In this study, a series of psychophysical experiments were conducted to investigate and compare the effect of certain factors on colour preference, including spectral power distribution of light, lighting application, observers' personal colour preference, regional cultural difference and gender difference. Certain LED lights with different correlated colour temperatures were used to illuminate a wide selection of objects. Participant response was quantified by a 7-point rating method or a 5-level ranking method. It was found that the preferred illumination for different objects exhibited a similar trend and the influence of light was significantly stronger than that of other factors. Therefore, we conclude that the light itself (rather than, for example, the objects that are viewed) is the most crucial factor for predicting which light, among several candidates with different CCTs, an observer will prefer. In addition, some of the gamut-based colour quality metrics correlated well with the participants' response, which corroborates the viewpoint that colour preference is strongly influenced by colour saturation. Moreover, the familiarity of the object affects the ratings for each experiment while the colour of the objects also influences colour preference.

Evaluating colour preference of lighting with an empty light booth

“…As shown in Table 1, although different in magnitude, the results of the two experiments perfectly match each other in the form of the rank order (Spearman correlation coefficient r=1), which soundly proves the repeatability of this work. In addition, the inter-observer and intra-observer variability of Experiment 1 was also tested following the method used in the earlier work 15 and the results were also acceptable: the inter-observer variability was 1.26-1.89 (former study: 0.92-2.21) while the intra-observer variability was 13% (former study: 6%-17%). demonstrated that compared to the influence of the light, the influence of human factors turns out to be insignificant.…”

“…demonstrated that compared to the influence of the light, the influence of human factors turns out to be insignificant. 15 Based on such an opinion, a one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate whether the absence of objects in the booth influenced the observers' preference rating.…”

“…16,17 AUTHORS' PEER REVIEWED SUBMITTED MANUSCRIPT To address the above described issue, therefore, a series of psychophysical experiments was conducted as part of our recent work. 15 A broad range of objects were separately adopted in the experiments, which included 4 groups of fruit and vegetables with different colours, 5 Chinese traditional calligraphies with different background colours, 4 pieces of artwork with different colour features and a bunch of artificial multicolour flowers. According to Royer et al, these kinds of objects were found to be very crucial when observers evaluated the lighting conditions.…”

A New Metric for Memory Colour Preference Evaluation in Lighting Applications - Experiments, Mathematical Definition, and Comparison With Other Colour Rendering Indices

“…In order to confirm the excellent predictive performance of the new metric proposal, the experimental data of several different psychophysical studies on the perception of colour preference in metameric and multi-CCT lighting scenarios were collected (Jost-Boissard 2009, Jost-Boissard 2015, Wei 2014, Szabó 2016, Smet 2010a, VanRie 2009, Imai 2012, Imai 2013, Jost 2013, Tsukitani 2013, Lin 2016, Houser 2005, Huang 2018, Narendran 2002, Wang 2017) and a comprehensive meta correlation-analysis as proposed by Hunter and Schmidt (Hunter 2004) was eventually performed on these data to evaluate and compare the predictive power of the MCPI in terms of visual appreciation with those of other colour quality metrics. These included Sanders' preferred colour index (Sanders 1959a), Judd's flattery index .…”

Artificial Lighting Environment Evaluation of the Japan Museum of Art Based on the Emotional Response of Observers

“…Their works proved that people did prefer the color rendition of white lighting at multiple correlated colour temperatures(CCTs) ranging from 2500 K to 5500 K, while they seemed to dislike colors that were illuminated by too cold CCT higher than 5500 K. The same group did two experiments, one involves evaluating color preferences for lighting with empty light box [8], to study color preferences for several LED white lights with different CCTs. The other studies the dominance of colour preference when the CCTs are different [9]. Lighting color preference is usually influenced by three environmental factors: light, object and observer.…”