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Updated: May 25, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
Context-dependent judgments of color that might allow color constancy in scenes with multiple regions of illumination
1Department of Experimental Psychology, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK. robert.lee@psy.ox.ac.uk
Abstract:
For a color-constant observer, a change in the spectral composition of the illumination is accompanied by a corresponding change in the chromaticity associated with an achromatic percept. However, maintaining color constancy for different regions of illumination within a scene implies the maintenance of multiple perceptual references. We investigated the features of a scene that enable the maintenance of separate perceptual references for two displaced but overlapping chromaticity distributions. The time-averaged, retinotopically localized stimulus was the primary determinant of color appearance judgments. However, spatial separation of test samples additionally served as a symbolic cue that allowed observers to maintain two separate perceptual references.
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