Recognized visual space of illumination: A new account of center‐surround simultaneous color contrast

Abstract

AbstractAppearances of an object color in a space are determined by a cortical representation of illuminant for a space or the recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI). The simultaneous color contrast phenomenon on a simple center‐surround configuration can be explained by RVSI. It is hypothesized that our visual system constructs an RVSI on the surround and then that RVSI determines color appearance of the center test. If this is correct, the color contrast can be quite strong when the surround is enlarged to be an enclosed space. To support the hypothesis, color appearance of a physical gray test was measured in a green surround of various sizes. Observers were asked to do elementary color naming in the first experiment. The results showed same tendency for all observers: once the surround was extended to walls, a ceiling, and a floor of a box, perceived chromaticness abruptly increased. In other words, three‐dimensional surround evoked strong simultaneous color contrast. In the second experiment the matching method was employed with the green and other three surround colors: red, blue, and yellow. The results were consistent with the first experiment. The well‐known color contrast is thought to be a weak version of this color change. It suggested that RVSI plays an important role in the well‐known color contrast demonstration on two‐dimensional planes. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 29, 255–260, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20019