Colour-contingent after-effects are really wavelength-contingent

Abstract

McCollough¹ reported that following adaptation to (say) a red and black pattern of vertical stripes, alternating every few seconds with a green and black pattern of horizontal stripes, an orientation-contingent colour after-effect is observed when black and white gratings are viewed. Vertical gratings are tinged with green and horizontal gratings with pink. We have exploited colour constancy, the tendency for objects to appear constant in hue despite large changes in the spectral composition of the illuminant, to examine whether the colours observed on the McCollough effect test gratings are determined by the wavelength composition of the adaptation patterns or by their perceived colour. The key to this approach can be illustrated by Edwin Land's elegant demonstrations of colour constancy using ‘Mondrian’ displays². By embedding the adapting grating that is used to induce the McCollough effect within a Mondrian we show that the effect depends upon the wavelength of light coming from the grating, rather than the perceived colour.