Invited Session IV: The visual ecology of colour and light: Influences of the colour statistics of natural scenes on colour perception.

Abstract

Exposure to the colour statistics of natural scenes can both induce and counteract individual differences in colour perception. If different people inhabit different chromatic environments, calibration of the visual system to the colour statistics of those environments can cause individual differences in colour perception. Conversely, exposure to common colour statistics in a common visual environment can reduce individual differences in colour perception that would otherwise be caused by individual differences in physiological factors such as macular pigment density, lens density and cone spectral sensitivities. I will present some examples of our research on these themes, including a cross-environmental study on colour perception between participants living in remote rural versus urban environments in Ecuador (Skelton et al. 2023, Proc. Roy. Soc. B), and studies that explore how the visual systems of anomalous trichromats compensate for their altered cone spectral sensitivities.