Tues & Thurs 1:30 - 3:20 pm
Guthrie 57

Color does not exist in the physical environment but is instead a creation of our brains. This course explores perceptual, physiological, developmental, and cultural aspects of human color vision. This course is a W course.

Topics surveyed include:
    color perception and phenomenology,
    retinal substrate and cortical processing of color vision
    color vision theory and models
    color and art,
    color and language,
    evolution and ecology of color vision,
    color deficiencies and color testing,
    genetics of color vision
    development of color vision in infants

Required: Psych 202 and 209. The course assumes a basic background in visual science such as that provided by the vision chapter in Carlson's Foundations of Physiological Psychology or other Psych 202 text.

Non-Psych Majors should contact instructor to discuss an entry code.

Evaluation will be based on the following:
a term paper (100 points),
a midterm essay exam (100 points),
a 15min in-class presentation (30 points),
weekly 1-page written feedback on readings (70 points total).

The figures at top come from Professor Steve Shevell of The University of Chicago and illustrate the effect of context on our perceptions of color and brightness. How many different background colors do you see in the color figure on the right? Actually there are only four: all of the squares in a column have the same background color. They appear different because of assilimation of the color of the lines.

The figure at the bottom shows one of many spaces for representing color: the CIE color space. The more familiar color circle (not shown) is another.