PHOTORECEPTOR SENSITIVITY CHANGES EXPLAIN COLOR APPEARANCE SHIFTS INDUCED BY LARGE UNIFORM BACKGROUNDS IN DICHOPTIC MATCHING

Photoreceptor sensitivity changes explained the effect of large unifor m backgrounds on the color appearance of small targets in a dichoptic asymmetric color matching experiment. Subjects viewed in each eye a ta rget superimposed on a large background. The backgrounds presented to the two eyes had different spectral compositions. Subjects adjusted th e target seen by the right eye to match the appearance of the target s een by the left eye. Receptor sensitivity changes explained the effect of numerous adapting backgrounds on the color appearance of many targ ets with high precision. Post-receptoral sensitivity changes provided a poorer account of the data. The apparent sensitivity of each recepto r class varied inversely with changes in background light absorbed by that receptor class, but did not depend on background light absorbed b y the other two receptor classes.