RESOLVING POWER OF THE HUMAN VISUAL-SYSTEM TO MONOCHROMATIC STIMULI

The resolving power in monocular, foveal vision was found to depend on the size of a white light source made of two white rectangles separat ed by vertical black bar. The question arises whether the wavelength o f light influences this dependence. An experiment was done on three su bjects using six monochromatic lights the range 450-625 nm, arid white light for control measurements. The diagram of the dependence of the minimal angle of resolution on the source size takes the shape of a bi phasic curve, i.e. decreasing and constant function. The wavelength wa s found to have no impact on the curve shape or values. The data point s obtained for white light coincide with those for monochromatic light s. The results confirm a thesis that all three colour mechanisms in th e human visual system are stimulated and are active in spatial summati on processes, but to a degree conditioned by a spectral sensitivity of the particular colour apparatus. It was confirmed that all colour mec hanisms have potentially the same acuity but the axial chromatic aberr ation causes observed reduction of acuity.