Abstract

Color matches depend on the optical density of the cone photopigments. We have shown that self-screening is sufficient to describe the change in color matches at illuminances which bleach significant amounts of photopigment. By tracking the color match of a mixture of 546- and 650-nm primaries to either 570- or 589.6-nm standards over time we measure the change in optical density of the cones with changes in retinal illuminance. Such measurements confirm the deviation from first-order kinetics, obtained with steady-state color matches; the log of (1−p) vs time is nonlinear, similar to recent results obtained with retinal densitometry. The techniques of color matching and retinal densitometry have different assumptions and advantages. An advantage of color matching is that stray light is a relatively unimportant factor. A disadvantage of color matching is the limitation on stimulus parameters. Color matching is a valuable convergent technique for measuring the dynamics of photopigment bleaching and regeneration.

© 1985 Optical Society of America