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Color Vision

Color Vision

Color perception begins in the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. Two main theories explain how colors are seen: the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory. The trichromatic theory, proposed by Thomas Young in 1802 and extended by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1852, suggests that color vision is based on three types of cone receptors in the retina. These cones are sensitive to different but overlapping ranges of wavelengths corresponding to red, blue, and green.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 9, 2025

Using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation to Measure Set-Specific Capture, a Consequence of Distraction While Multitasking

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Capacity limitations in template-guided multiple color search.

Dirk Kerzel¹, Anna Grubert²

¹Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, 40 Boulevard du Pont d'Arve, 1205, Genève, Switzerland. dirk.kerzel@unige.ch.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

|December 17, 2021

Summary

Visual working memory capacity is limited. While up to three attentional templates can be formed, only two effectively guide visual search, demonstrating a lower capacity for template-guided search than previously thought.

Keywords:

Attentional capture Attentional template Visual search Visual working memory

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Area of Science:

Cognitive psychology
Neuroscience
Visual perception

Background:

Visual selection depends on features stored in visual working memory, known as attentional templates.
Understanding the link between working memory capacity and the number of simultaneously active attentional templates is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between visual working memory capacity and the number of attentional templates guiding visual selection.
To determine the maximum number of attentional templates that can effectively guide visual search simultaneously.

Main Methods:

Utilized the contingent capture paradigm to measure active attentional templates.
Employed single, double, and triple color searches with matching and non-matching cues.
Analyzed cueing effects based on cue color matching the target color.

Main Results:

Initially, findings suggested up to three attentional templates could be established, indicated by larger cueing effects for matching cues.
Further analysis revealed that with three templates, significant cueing effects only occurred when the matching cue's color was the actual target color.
With two templates, inhibition was less complete, allowing for more successful operation, while three templates led to inhibition of non-target colors.

Conclusions:

A maximum of two attentional templates can successfully operate within the contingent capture paradigm.
The capacity for template-guided visual search is significantly lower than the overall capacity of visual working memory.