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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
A vector model of colour contrast in a cone-excitation colour space
1Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, UK. alex.shepherd@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk
Abstract:
A vector model of colour contrast is examined in a colour space that is a logarithmic transformation of the MacLeod-Boynton cone-excitation diagram. Observers set matches in a haploscopic display, in which one eye viewed a standard display (a neutral target square in a coloured surround) and the other viewed a matching display (a variable square in its own surround). Contrast colours are simply represented in this colour space: the vector connecting the right-eye surround and matched chromaticities is parallel to and to the same length and direction as the vector that connects the left-eye (standard) surround and square chromaticities. This describes observers' matches to the hues induced in a neutral square for a range of inducing surround colours, a range of right-eye (match) surround colours and four different luminance contrasts.
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