Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T02:27:17.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Infants' spontaneous color preferences are not due to adult-like brightness variations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2005

DAVIDA Y. TELLER
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychology and Physiology/Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle
ANDREA CIVAN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle
KEVIN BRONSON-CASTAIN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle

Abstract

In the present work, we explore the perceptual bases of infants' spontaneous looking preferences among isoluminant chromatic stimuli (Bornstein, 1975). Three experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, adult subjects made brightness matches between a white standard and each of six isoluminant chromatic stimuli. The classic variations of brightness with chromaticity were found. In Experiment 2, 12-week-old infants' spontaneous looking preferences were measured for white lights of different luminances. Preference increased with increasing luminance, suggesting that brightness differences are sufficient to create looking preferences among isochromatic stimuli. In Experiment 3, infants' preferences were tested for each of the six chromatic stimuli paired against white, at both isoluminance and (adult) isobrightness. All chromatic stimuli were preferred to white, and the pattern of preferences was similar for both isoluminance and isobrightness conditions. It is concluded that hue and/or saturation, rather than brightness, control infants' spontaneous looking preferences among chromatic stimuli.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, R.J. (1987). An evaluation of color preferences in early infancy. Infant Behavior and Development 10, 143150.Google Scholar
Ayama, M. & Ikeda, M. (1998). Brightness-to-luminance ratio of colored light in the entire chromaticity diagram. Colour Research and Application 23, 274287.Google Scholar
Bieber, M.L., Volbrecht, V., & Werner, J. (1995). Spectral efficiency measured by heterochromatic flicker photometry is similar in human infants and adults. Vision Research 35, 13851392.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. (1975). Qualities of color vision in infancy. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 19, 401419.Google Scholar
Burns, S.A., Smith, V.C., Pokorny, J., & Elsner, A.E. (1982). Brightness of equal-luminance lights. Journal of the Optical Society of America 72, 12251231.Google Scholar
Civan, A., Teller, D.Y., & Palmer, J. (2004). Relations between spontaneous preferences, familiarized preferences, and novelty effects: Measurements with forced-choice techniques. Infancy. (submitted)Google Scholar
Fantz, R. (1965). Visual perception from birth as shown by pattern selectivity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 118, 793814.Google Scholar
Indow, T. (1978). Scaling of saturation and hue in the nonspectral region. Perception and Psychophysics 24, 1120.Google Scholar
Indow, T. & Stevens, S.S. (1966). Scaling of saturation and hue. Perception and Psychophysics 1, 253271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, G.H. (1967). Saturation estimates and chromatic adaptation. Perception and Psychophysics 2, 271274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maurer, D., Lewis, T., Cavanagh, P., & Anstis, S. (1989). A new test of luminous efficiency for babies. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 30, 297303.Google Scholar
Pereverzeva, M., Chien, S., Palmer, J., & Teller, D.Y. (2002). Infant photometry: Are mean adult isoluminance values a sufficient approximation to individual infant values? Vision Research 42, 16391649.Google Scholar
Teller, D.Y. (1979). The forced-choice preferential looking procedure: A psychophysical technique for use with human infants. Infant Behavior and Development 2, 135153.Google Scholar
Teller, D.Y. (1998). Spatial and temporal aspects of infant color vision. Vision Research 38, 32753282.Google Scholar
Teller, D.Y. & Bornstein, M.H. (1987). Infant color vision and color perception. In Handbook of Infant Perception: I. From Sensation to Perception, ed. Salapatek, P. & Cohen, L.B., pp. 185236. New York, Academic Press.
Teller, D.Y., Pereverzeva, M., & Civan, A.L. (2003). Adult brightness vs. luminance as models of infant photometry: Variability, biasability, and spectral characteristics for the two age groups favor the luminance model. Journal of Vision 3, 333346.Google Scholar
Wagner, G. & Boynton, R. (1972). Comparison of four methods of heterochromatic photometry. Journal of the Optical Society of America 62, 15081515.Google Scholar
Wyszecki, G. & Stiles, W.S. (1982). Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae, 2nd Edition. New York: Wiley.