Abstract

I measured color appearance changes that could be caused by juxtaposing flickering lights with different phases. A flickering annulus test field (inside diameter 2°, width 10 ft.) was embedded at the center of a 6.8° flickering surround field. Subjects matched the apparent color of the test field to a steady reference field, which was adjustable in chromaticity, had the same shape as the test field and was separated from the surround by 3°. These fields were displayed on color cathoderay tobes (56 Hz frame rate). One period of the flickers consisted of a sequence of eight frames. Both fields were turned Off in the first half of the period and On with a white color in the latter half, except for the fifth frame, in which only the surround was On with a certain color. Two types of shifts were observed, depending on subjects. In one type, the apparent color caused by a white or cyan fifth-frame color was brighter, had about a 488 nm dominant wavelength appearance and was similar to red or purple. In the other type the apparent color was dimmer, had about a 561 nm complementary dominant wavelength appearance, and was similar to green or yellow.

© 1990 Optical Society of America