Simultaneous color constancy: papers with diverse Munsell values

Abstract

Arend and Reeves [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3, 1743 (1986)] described measurements of color constancy in computer simulations of arrays of colored papers of equal Munsell value under 4000-, 6500-, and 10,000-K daylight illuminants. We report an extension of those experiments to chromatic arrays spanning a wide range of Munsell values. The computer-simulated scene included a standard array of Munsell papers under 6500-K illumination and a test array, an identical array of the same papers under 4000 or 10,000 K. Observers adjusted a patch in the test array in order to match the corresponding patch in the standard array by one of two criteria. They either matched hue and saturation or they made surface-color matches, in which the test patch was made to "look as if it were cut from the same pice of paper as the standard patch." The test and the standard patches were surrounded by a single color (annulus display) or by many colors (Mondrian display). The data agreed with those of our previous equal-value experiment. The paper matches were often approximately color constant. The hue-saturation matches were in the correct direction for constancy but were always closer to a chromaticity match (no constancy) than to the chromaticity required for hue-saturation constancy.

Does colour constancy exist?

“…Yet surface-colour matches can certainly be made with such scenes (Fig. 2a), and they do not seem much worse than with scenes containing many surfaces [21,22] (as in Fig. 1a, the illuminants on the left and right are different).…”

“…Instructions of this kind can be important, as subjects might concentrate on the colour of the light -hue, saturation, brightness -rather than on the colour of the surface [10,17,18,21 -23]. To make this distinction clearer, look at a surface half in shadow: the shadowed region has the same surface colour as the unshadowed region but it simultaneously appears less bright and generally more blue [22].…”

“…As a result, even this reduced version of colour constancy cannot be fully realised. encouraged to make comparisons with other surfaces in the scene that by chance have similar colours [17,22,23]. For example, in the left-hand pattern of Fig.…”

Colour constancy and Fregean representationalism

“…This is not only introspectively verifiable-it is the standard view in the literature on colour perception '' (2006, p. 84). And he notes further that in colour constancy experiments [for instance, Arend, Reeves, Schirillo and Goldstein (1991)], subjects are able to match two coloured papers for hue, saturation, and brightness even when those same two papers do not look to the subject to have the same surface colour (Thompson 2006, p. 85). to assume that in either case your experience will misrepresent the colour of the paper-in fact, we know that the visual systems of normal humans are very good at determining the unchanging colour of a surface despite changes to its ''sensory appearance.'' 9 So, once again, we have two phenomenally identical experiences of different coloured objects and yet each experience represents the colour of the relevant object veridically.…”

“…11 3 Thompson's solution So, the Fregean representationalist has a problem: she needs to add something to the relevant modes of presentation in order to accommodate colour constancy, but the most obvious strategy (including lighting conditions) won't work. A more 9 See, for example, Arend et al (1991). 10 See Thompson (2006).…”