Based on a recent study conducted by professors at the University of York, humans’ perception of color yellow changes every season. Vision changes are more visible for the yellow shade, which is perceived as greyish in the cold winter months and rather greenish during the summer months when plants and trees are covered in leaves.
Anatomy experts thought they knew everything there was to know about the human body and senses. A recent experiment shows we still have many things left to discover and to decipher, even those related to humans’ perception of colors.
For the current experiment, scientists have asked 67 men and women to take part in two experiments, one that was held in January and another one in June. Subjects were asked to stay in a dark room until their vision adapted itself to the new conditions and then, they were handed a colorimeter and asked to program it to display a “real yellow” hue.
While most people can understand and recognize a “real yellow”, results have shown that shades differed from one experiment to another. During the January tests, most respondents opted for a more greyish yellow, while in the summer their perception of this color showed a larger quantity of green hues.
The only valid explanation that scientists have found in relation to this change of perception was related to the yearly seasons. Researchers think respondents opted for a grey yellow in the winter months because this time of the year is usually silvery, whereas in the summer months they have set the colorimeter closer to green because of the rich flora of the season.
Lauren Welbourne, the lead author of the research takes great confidence in the new finding that she has made even though many more tests are required to prove that humans indeed perceive colors differently based on the yearly seasons. A comprehensive study should include similar experiments for all the four colors that humans normally perceived, that is, blue, green, yellow and red.
Welbourne has congratulated her team for their scientific breakthrough as the new study helps explain how humans’ vision really works. There could be many more discoveries made in the domain, some of them dismantling all that has been previously said.
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