Adaptation to a homochromatic visual world

Abstract

In a simulation of the underwater visual world, subjects adapted to a diffuse visual field of blue-green light and, for a control, a field of red light. Measures were then made both of the shift in color appearance of objects and of the subject's speed of reacting to these shifted colors. The amount of change in the appearance of colors was sizable, easily accounting for the reports sometimes made by SEALAB divers, who said they could see yellows and reds when there were none present. There was, however, no change in the subjects' speed of reacting to the colors.