Abstract

Simultaneous contrast is the change in the perceived color of a visual field caused by surrounding fields. In general, the size, location and color of the surrounding fields influence the perceived color of the center. We report results which illustrate that the effect of the surround on the center decreases exponentially as a function of distance from center to surround and increases exponentially as a function of surround size. In addition, the effect of surround color on the perception of the center suggests that simultaneous contrast may result from the visual system trying to remove that portion of the color signal which is common to both center and surround.

© 1987 Optical Society of America