Abstract

Colors can be systematically represented, based on their appearance, in a three-dimensional color space. They change continuously in any direction in the color apace so that we could discriminate a million of colors when two color are simultaneously compared in juxtaposed fields. It is unlikely, however, that we can utilize so many colors in our everyday situations where some color memory seems to be necessarily involved.^1-5 Color appearance may not be precisely retained in memory, and colors may be categorically organized in memory.^6,7,8 In the present paper, I will focus on color discrimination or identification tasks using memory. Some of our recent studies, which indicate categorical influences on color discrimination in memory, are described here.

© 1992 Optical Society of America