Excerpt from The Psychological Monographs, Vol. 15: 1913

The following study, practically as is here presented, was submitted to the Faculty of Bryn Mawr College in May 1911 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It is the outgrowth of a series of studies dealing with the phenomena of color vision that was begun in 1908 by the writer working under the direction of and in collaboration with Professor C. E. Ferree of Bryn Mawr College. In order to show in what way the present study, which deals with the formulation of a technique for investigating color sensitivity, is the logical outcome of the initial studies in the series, and is, moreover, required for the completion of the later studies, a brief resume will be given of the work undertaken in the investigations preceding and following it.

The first of these studies entitled: Colored After-image and Contrast Sensations from Stimuli in Which No Color Is Sensed, was published in the Psychological Review, 1912, XIX, pp. 195- 239. As is shown by the title, the article deals with the conditions under which colored after-image and contrast sensations may be aroused from stimuli in which no color is sensed. A formulation of these conditions, together with allied fusion and limen experiments, shows the phenomenon to be a peculiarity of the inhibitive action of brightness upon color. Brightness fused with color inhibits its saturation. With the exception of the region just within the limits of sensitivity for two colors, the following may be stated roughly as a law of this action for all colors and all parts of the retina: white inhibits most, grays in the order from light to dark next, and black least. This law was generalized from the results of fusion and limen experiments in a large number of meridians of the retina. In accord with this law, color may be obtained in the after-image when none is sensed in the stimulus when an unfavorable brightness quality is fused with the stimulus color and a favorable one with the after-image color.

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