Color Perception: Objects, Constancy, and Categories
Witzel and Gegenfurtner review the state of the art on object colours, colour constancy and colour categories. Their framing argument is worth carrying into any discussion of colour perception. Colour has traditionally been investigated by linking how a colour appears to colorimetric measurements of the light entering the eye, but the purpose of colour perception is not to determine the properties of incident light. It is to help identify objects and materials in the environment. The common ground across the three research areas they survey is that colour appearance is tightly bound to identifying objects and materials, and to communicating about them with other observers. They conclude that research should focus on how colour processing is adapted to the surface properties of objects in natural environments, in order to bridge the gap between the well-understood early stages of colour vision and the subjective appearance of colour.
Witzel and Gegenfurtner review the state of the art on object colours, colour constancy and colour categories. Their framing argument is worth carrying into any discussion of colour perception. Colour has traditionally been investigated by linking how a colour appears to colorimetric measurements of the light entering the eye, but the purpose of colour perception is not to determine the properties of incident light. It is to help identify objects and materials in the environment. The common ground across the three research areas they survey is that colour appearance is tightly bound to identifying objects and materials, and to communicating about them with other observers. They conclude that research should focus on how colour processing is adapted to the surface properties of objects in natural environments, in order to bridge the gap between the well-understood early stages of colour vision and the subjective appearance of colour.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Witzel, C., & Gegenfurtner, K. R. (2018). 'Color perception: objects, constancy, and categories.' Annual Review of Vision Science, 4, 475-499. doi:10.1146/annurev-vision-091517-034231
Where we use it
- Why You and I See Different Colours, Why We Look
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The source
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-vision-091517-034231
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-vision-091517-034231