Contrast/color card procedure: a new test of young infants' color vision.
We have developed a new test which can rapidly evaluate basic color vision in individual infants. The test consists of a series of large cards constructed with Munsell Hues. It uses a modified preferential looking procedure (FPL) and, to control brightness cues, incorporates a two-phase systematic variation of luminance. First, we evaluate an infant's ability to discriminate 9.5 by 16 degrees achromatic patches of varying luminance from a 26 by 65 degrees achromatic background of midrange luminance. In the second phase the test patch is chromatic and its luminance, relative to the background, is varied over a range of about 1.0 log cd/m2. The number of relative luminances chosen for each infant depends upon his/her performance in phase 1. Seventy 2- and 3-month-olds were tested with 4 broad-band chromatic patches, a red (dominant lambda = 660 nm), a yellow (dominant lambda = 580 nm), a green (dominant lambda = 520 nm), and a blue (dominant lambda = 475 nm). Results showed that 3-month-olds had little difficulty making any of the chromatic-achromatic discriminations but many 2-month-olds appeared to fail to discriminate the yellow and green from the background at relative luminances close to an adult brightness match. Most importantly, the test shows promise as a relatively simple, time-efficient, and portable tool for the assessment of early color vision.
Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada.
M E
ME
Mercer
M L
ML
Courage
R J
RJ
Adams
D003119:Color Perception Tests / Q000379:methods*; D003117:Color Vision Defects / Q000175:diagnosis; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results