ISBN 9783843915175

978-3-8439-1517-5, Reihe Psychologie

Nora Umbach
Dimensionality of the Perceptual Space of Achromatic Surface Colors

159 Seiten, Dissertation Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (2013), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Up until now, a perceptual space for achromatic colors has not been investigated systematically. Recent evidence suggests that a perceptual space for achromatic colors needs to be at least two-dimensional, even though traditional views consider the perception of achromatic colors as one-dimensional (with the end points white and black). It has been shown that this traditional view cannot account for all perceptual phenomena experienced when looking at achromatic surface colors.

This thesis introduces new ways to investigate the dimensionality of the perceptual space for achromatic surface colors showing that we need to build experiments on sound theoretical concepts in order to draw meaningful conclusions from them. The results of three experiments show that two perceptual dimensions are needed to distinguish between stimuli embedded in different surrounds under constant illumination conditions. The relationship between stimulus configuration and the dimensionality of a perceptual space for achromatic surface colors needs to get much more attention in future experiments.