Ocular dominance and subjective color perception: a study using the Fechner-Benham Visual Illusion
Date
2005
Authors
Kellogg, Jessica M., author
O'Shea, Geoffrey, author
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Abstract
Past research has demonstrated differences in visual processing between the dominant, or preferred eye, and the non-dominant, or less preferred eye. Researchers have accounted for these differences according to either physiological mechanisms (Porac & Coren, 1976) or behavioral preferences (Mapp, Ono, & Barbeito, 2003). The behavioral preferences account can be eliminated by examining how the eyes process visual illusions which are not expected to be influenced by prior experiences. One particular illusion, the Fechner-Benham Color Illusion, involves disks featuring black and white designs which, when rotated, produce the illusion of various subjective colors within the disks (Rosenblum, Anderson, & Purple, 1981). It was hypothesized that when viewing the Fechner-Benham Illusion with the nondominant eye, participants would exhibit longer latencies for the onset of color andwould report fewer colors compared to viewing with the dominant eye and with binocular vision. The underlying physiological mechanisms that are often regarded in subjective color perception are either described high in the visual information hierarchy, in a neurophysiological site, thus eliminating the retinal level (Rhollec & Vi�not, 1999;Robinson, 1896). Or, antagonistically, they are described as taking place within theretina in terms of an uneven distribution of photoreceptor cells (Jarvis, 1977).
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Subject
Visual perception
Color vision