Hues of Color Afterimages

We studied the relationship between color afterimages and complementary colors. The hues of afterimages of 24 inducer hues, uniformly distributed over the rgb color circle, were measured by an iterative method of adjustment. The judgment of equality of hue of the afterimage and a synthesized patch was effectively judged at the moment immediately after the switch-off of the inducer, when the synthesized patch went through any number of iterative adjustments. The two patches—both phenomenally present, but only one optically presented—appeared to the left and right of a fixation mark that was fixated throughout the whole procedure. Thus, both patches were present in eccentric vision. The hues of afterimages were found to be quite different from the hue of the complementary of the inducer. Almost one half of the color circle (orange to chartreuse) leads to afterimage hues in a narrow region of purples. This implies that color circles based on diametrically opposed inducer–afterimage hues are necessarily inconsistent. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, the relation between primary and afterimage hues is still approximately an involution (they are reciprocally related).

Temporal Integration of Alternately Exposed Monocular Images of a Random-Dot Stereogram

J R Ewald and O Gross (1906 Pflügers ArchivCXV 514 – 521) reported that monocular half-images presented alternately can be fused to a stereoscopic percept. The situation is like looking through a fence close to the eyes, with picket and gap widths being identical to the interpupillary distance. Though vision is monocular, an observer moving fast enough parallel to the fence will have stereoscopic vision of the scenery behind it. Little is known about the limits of this integrating mechanism. In two experiments, LCD shutter glasses were used to control the viewing conditions of the anaglyphs of a random-dot stereogram. Binocular fusion was supported by a visible binocular fixation mark and a frame around the display. Subjects were eight male and three female students with normal stereoscopic acuity. They were instructed to press a key as long as they could perceive a global figure portrayed in the stereogram (25 min arc disparity). In experiment 1, monocular exposures to the right and the left eye followed each other without pauses. Psychophysical procedures were used to determine the frequency threshold for stereopsis. A breakdown frequency of 2.5 Hz was found, for descending as well as ascending series. Transferred to the concrete example of a fence, the result corresponds to a pace of 0.32 m s−1, with an interocular distance and a fence measure of 63 mm. In experiment 2, alternating monocular exposures of 100 ms duration were separated by variable pauses. Stereopsis disappeared with 8 ms pauses (ascending), and 17 ms pauses (descending). Results may be attributed to integrating mechanisms of binocular cortical cells, rather than to retinal processes (afterimages).