In central vision, the discrimination of colors lying on a tritan line
is improved if a small gap is introduced between the two stimulus fields.
Boynton et al. (1977) called this a
“positive gap effect.” They found that the effect was weak or
absent for discriminations based on the ratio of the signals of long-wave
and middle-wave cones; and even for tritan stimuli, the gap effect was
weakened when forced choice or brief durations were used. We here describe
measurements of the gap effect in the parafovea. The stimuli were 1 deg of
visual angle in width and were centered on an imaginary circle of radius 5
deg. They were brief (100 ms), and thresholds were measured with a spatial
two-alternative forced choice. Under these conditions we find a clear gap
effect, which is of similar magnitude for both the cardinal chromatic
axes. It may be a chromatic analog of the crowding effect observed for
parafoveal perception of form.