Colours And Colour Vision: An Introductory Survey

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E-Book Overview

Colours are increasingly important in our daily life, but how did colour vision evolve? How have colours been made, used and talked about in different cultures and tasks? How do various species of animals see colours? Which physical stimuli allow us to see colours and by which physiological mechanisms are they perceived? How and why do people differ in their colour perceptions? In answering these questions and others, this book offers an unusually broad account of the complex phenomenon of colour and colour vision. The book's broad and accessible approach gives it wide appeal and it will serve as a useful coursebook for upper-level undergraduate students studying psychology, particularly cognitive neuroscience and visual perception courses, as well as for students studying colour vision as part of biology, medicine, art and architecture courses.

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E-Book Information

• Year: 2,016

• Pages: 276

• Pages In File: 316

• Language: English

• Topic: 198

• Identifier: 9,781,316,014,776

• Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316014776

• Color: 1

• Org File Size: 43,567,949

• Extension: pdf

• Tags: Perception, Color, Cognitive Psychology, Art, Neuroscience, Physiological Psychology, Science

• Toc: Contents List of plates page xiii List of figures xxiii List of tables xxv Preface xxvii Chapter 1: Colour vision in everyday life 1 1.1 Numbers and dimensions of colours: hue, colourfulness, brightness 2 1.2 Commonly used colour names in different languages 4 1.3 Development of colour vision and colour naming in children 9 1.4 History of colour pigments and dyes 11 1.5 Psychology and symbolic values of colours 17 1.6 Colour mixtures 20 1.6.1 Subtractive and additive mixtures 20 1.6.2 Pigment mixtures and palettes 23 1.6.3 Optical mixtures 24 1.7 Colour and pictorial art 24 1.8 Colour and music 29 1.9 Colour and literature 31 1.10 Colour and philosophy 34 Chapter 2: The signals of colours: light and wavelengths 36 2.1 Light and darkness: early thoughts concerning the nature of colours 37 2.2 White light and spectral colours: Newton’s experiments 39 2.3 The rainbow 42 2.4 Properties of light: wavelength and frequency 45 2.5 Trichromatic nature of colour vision: all hues from three 50 2.6 Trichromatic colour production and reproduction 53 2.6.1 Additive mixtures using coloured lights (RGB) 54 2.6.2 Subtractive mixtures of coloured substances (CMYK) 54 2.7 Colour hierarchies: primary, elementary and complementary colours 57 2.8 Light of naturally occurring colours 58 2.8.1 Absorption colours: selective absorption and reflection 59 2.8.2 Structural colours: refraction, scattering, interference 66 2.8.2.1 Light refraction 66 2.8.2.2 Wavelength-related light scattering 66 2.8.2.3 Random light scattering and reflection of all wavelengths together 68 2.8.2.4 Interference 69 2.8.3 Radiating colours: the active production of coloured light 69 2.8.3.1 Heat radiation and fire 69 2.8.3.2 Fluorescence and phosphoresce