Colour Constancy with Change of Viewing Distance under Water

Colour constancy is commonly considered to be the product both of high-order (cognitive) and of lower-order (retinal) mechanisms. A study is reported of colour appearance in situations where the spectral radiance of an object changes significantly with viewing distance. Subjects were instructed to match the colour appearance of a number of coloured tiles in air and at various viewing distances in different types of water. Colour-constancy ratios were calculated by comparing the visual data with simultaneously obtained spectroradiometric and photometric data. The obtained constancy ratios were attributed to the role of distance estimation in the determination of colour appearance, an effect that is presumably masked under normal viewing conditions, where long viewpaths are necessary to produce significant radiance changes. A similarity to the size—distance invariance hypothesis is noted.