Stripping #The Dress: the importance of contextual information on inter-individual differences in colour perception

Color Judgments of #The Dress and #The Jacket in a Sample of Different Cultures

Two viral photographs, #The Dress and #The Jacket, have received recent attention in research on perception as the colors in these photos are ambiguous. In the current study, we examined perception of these photographs across three different cultural samples: Sweden (Western culture), China (Eastern culture), and India (between Western and Eastern cultures). Participants also answered questions about gender, age, morningness, and previous experience of the photographs. Analyses revealed that only age was a significant predictor for the perception of The Dress, as older people were more likely to perceive the colors as blue and black than white and gold. In contrast, multiple factors predicted perception of The Jacket, including age, previous experience, and country. Consistent with some previous research, this suggests that the perception of The Jacket is a different phenomenon from perception of The Dress and is influenced by additional factors, most notably culture.

Explaining #theShoe based on the optimal color hypothesis: The role of chromaticity vs. luminance distribution in an ambiguous image

The image of #theShoe is a derivative image of #theDress which induces vastly different color experiences across individuals. The majority of people perceive that the shoe has grey leather with turquoise laces, but others report pink leather with white laces. We hypothesized #theShoe presents a problem of color constancy, where different people estimate different illuminants falling onto the shoe. The present study specifically aimed to understand what cues in the shoe image caused the ambiguity based on the optimal color hypothesis: our visual system knows the gamut of surface colors under various illuminants and applies the knowledge for illuminant estimation. The analysis showed that estimated illuminant chromaticity largely changes according to the assumed intensity of the illuminant. When the illuminant intensity was assumed to be low, a high color temperature was estimated. In contrast, assuming high illuminant intensity led to the estimation of low color temperature. A simulation based on a von Kries correction showed that the subtraction of estimated illuminants from the original image shifts the appearance of the shoe towards the reported states (i.e. gray-turquoise or pink-white). These results suggest that the optimal color hypothesis provides a theoretical interpretation to #theShoe phenomenon. Moreover, this luminance-dependent color-shift was observed in #theDress phenomenon, supporting the notion that the same trigger induces #theShoe.

Exploring the Determinants of Color Perception Using #Thedress and Its Variants: The Role of Spatio-Chromatic Context, Chromatic Illumination, and Material-Light Interaction

The colors that people see depend not only on the surface properties of objects but also on how these properties interact with light as well as on how light reflected from objects interacts with an individual's visual system. Because individual visual systems vary, the same visual stimulus may elicit different perceptions from different individuals. #thedress phenomenon drove home this point: different individuals viewed the same image and reported it to be widely different colors: blue and black versus white and gold. This phenomenon inspired a collection of demonstrations presented at the Vision Sciences Society 2015 Meeting which showed how spatial and temporal manipulations of light spectra affect people's perceptions of material colors and illustrated the variability in individual color perception. The demonstrations also explored the effects of temporal alterations in metameric lights, including Maxwell's Spot, an entoptic phenomenon. Crucially, the demonstrations established that #thedress phenomenon occurs not only for images of the dress but also for the real dress under real light sources of different spectral composition and spatial configurations.