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Chromatic Contrast Sensitivity

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Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology

Synonyms

Color Contrast Sensitivity (rarely)

Definition

Chromatic contrast sensitivity is the ability to see chromatic contrast. Chromatic contrast refers to the occurrence of differences in chromaticity (saturated, hueful color) in a visual percept (scene, image, and stimulus). It may consist in differences across space (spatial chromatic contrast) or in changes of chromaticity across time (temporal chromatic contrast). The term chromatic contrast is used in opposition to achromatic contrast, where differences only occur in luminance (greyscale). Chromatic contrast sensitivity depends on the spatial and temporal frequency of contrast (low-pass) in a way that differs from achromatic contrast sensitivity (band-pass).

Conceptual Clarifications

Almost every phenomenon in color vision involves contrasts between colors. Colors are not perceived absolutely, but relative to other colors, and contrasts between colors affect the appearance of the single colors (for review, see [1])....

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Christoph Witzel

  2. Department of Psychology, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany

    Karl Gegenfurtner

Authors
  1. Christoph Witzel
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  2. Karl Gegenfurtner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Witzel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. North Carolina State University, Color Science & Imaging Laboratories, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Renzo Shamey

Section Editor information

  1. University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

    Gaurav Sharma

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Witzel, C., Gegenfurtner, K. (2023). Chromatic Contrast Sensitivity. In: Shamey, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89862-5_17

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