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Seeing the sunnier side of life: Scientists bring a whole new meaning to winter blues

Date:
August 4, 2015
Source:
University of York
Summary:
Scientists have shed new light on how humans process color -- revealing that we see things differently in winter compared with summer. The researchers examined how our color perception changes between seasons and in particular how we process the color known as unique yellow.
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Scientists at the University of York have shed new light on how humans process color -- revealing that we see things differently in winter compared with summer.

The researchers examined how our color perception changes between seasons and in particular how we process the color known as unique yellow.

Humans identify four unique hues -- blue, green, yellow and red -- that do not appear to contain mixtures of other colors.

Unique yellow is particularly interesting to scientists as it is stable across large populations -- everyone agrees what unique yellow looks like despite the fact that people's eyes are often very different.

The researchers in the Department of Psychology wanted to discover why this color is so stable and what factors might make it change. They thought that unique yellow might depend not on the biology of the eye but on the color of the natural world.

PhD student and lead author, Lauren Welbourne, said: "What we are finding is that between seasons our vision adapts to changes in environment. So in summer when there is a much larger amount of foliage, our visual system has to account for the fact that on average we are exposed to far more green.

"In York, you typically have grey, dull winters and then in summer you have greenery everywhere. Our vision compensates for those changes and that, surprisingly, changes what we think 'yellow' looks like. It's a bit like changing the color balance on your TV."

The researchers tested 67 men and women in January and June. Participants were placed in a darkened room, allowed to adjust to the light and then on a machine called a colorimeter asked to adjust a dial backwards and forwards until they felt they had reached the point where it had reached unique yellow -- with no hint of a green or red.

"I take lots of measurements of the setting in both seasons, and find a shift in the average setting between seasons, " Lauren said.

Lauren said the research, which is published in Current Biology, had shed new light on the complex workings of the visual system.

"This is the first time natural changes in the environment have been shown to affect our perception of color. For me as a vision scientist it is fascinating as it is telling us more about how visual processing works.

"Although there's no disorder that this can fix, the more we learn about how vision and color in particular is processed, the better we can understand exactly how we see the world. This can have knock on effects on the way we diagnose and treat visual disorders."

Lauren said it provides an example of how humans constantly adapt to their surroundings.

"Many places in the world have very different environments throughout the year. Think about the changes that the rainy season brings to India, or winter and summer in the arctic.

" So this process is very useful because you can adapt to these huge seasonal changes in environmental color and continue to see and discriminate between colors accurately."


Story Source:

Materials provided by University of York. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Lauren E. Welbourne, Antony B. Morland, Alex R. Wade. Human colour perception changes between seasons. Current Biology, August 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.030

Cite This Page:

University of York. "Seeing the sunnier side of life: Scientists bring a whole new meaning to winter blues." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 August 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150804074054.htm>.
University of York. (2015, August 4). Seeing the sunnier side of life: Scientists bring a whole new meaning to winter blues. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 9, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150804074054.htm
University of York. "Seeing the sunnier side of life: Scientists bring a whole new meaning to winter blues." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150804074054.htm (accessed December 9, 2024).

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