Studying the Peculiarities of Color Perception by People with Abnormal Color Vision

Abstract

The term “color anomaly” is understood to mean any deviation of color vision from certain limits of normal color perception. There are quite a lot of people around the world (about 8...9%) who have abnormal color vision. A person with abnormal color vision may find himself or herself unable to cope with a task that can easily be fulfilled by an ordinary person. However, modern investigations testify that abnormal color vision may turn to be an advantage for some people.

Based on the results of a comprehensive analysis of literature sources, a task was set forth to corroborate the results of tests carried out by English experts D. Mollona, G. Jordan and S. Rafael by the authors’ own direct experimental and numerical investigations and to carry out measurements of all colors chosen by observers to become convinced, based on the own experience, that people belonging to a certain group of abnormal color vision have great color distinction abilities for a specific color region.

Investigations aimed at identifying problems with color vision of people by several tests were carried out. People with abnormal and trichromatic color vision have been identified, and the hypothesis stating that people with impaired color perception, specifically, protanopic persons, are able to distinguish more hues than people with normal color vision (trichromats).

It has been found from the tests carried out with the people who were involved in the investigations that trichromats distinguish on the average nine hues of khaki in three aspects, whereas protanopic persons distinguish 27 hues; i.e., these latter are able to distinguish three times more hues of khaki color than trichromats. The experiment results have shown that dichromats identify on the average three thresholds in distinguishing between the khaki hues, whereas trichromats identify no less than four such thresholds.

It has been confirmed based on the results of the accomplished numerical analyses and experiments that protanopic persons distinguish the khaki hues better than people with normal color vision. Undoubtedly, such people have an increased self-assessment. It well may be that they will be able to do activities associated with yellow-green and brown colors better than trichromats. For example, they may show better orientation and work directly in forests or deserts and work with maps of woodlands and highlands.