Study Guide for Chapter 7

1.         In what ways does color contribute to detection, identification, and discrimination? (Be able to provide some real-life examples.)

2.         Explain the meaning of the sentence, “Color is a psychological phenomenon, entirely subjective in nature.”

3.         What are hue, brightness, and saturation?

4.         How many spectral components must be combined to create “white” light?

5.         What is Newton’s color circle?

6.         What are nonspectral colors?

7.         What does it mean if a color is desaturated? How might you desaturate a particular color?

8.         What is color constancy? What role does light adaptation play in this?

9.         When mixing colors, what is a subtractive color mixture? What is an additive color mixture? What is one example of where each might be used?

10.       What is the univariance principle?

11.       What is a monochromat? A dichromat? A trichromat? A tetrachromat? Which are you?

12.       What are the three different cone types?

13.       What is the primary implication of the finding that humans have either 557 nm L-cones OR 552 nm L-cones?

14.       What is color contrast?

15.       What does color contrast tell us about color opponent-processing?

16.       If the trichromatic theory applies at the level of the photoreceptors, then at what level does the opponent-process theory of color vision apply?

17.       What evidence supports cortical processing of color? What area in the brain is most likely to be involved in color processing?

18.       What are the various types of genetic color deficiencies?

19.       What are examples of acquired disorders of color perception?