Abstract
The chromatic discrimination capabilities of 3- and 7-week-old infants were tested using 8°, 417-, 448-, 486-, 540-, and 645-nm test fields embedded in a 547-nm surround and 486-nm test fields in a broadband red surround. In corroboration of earlier studies, few 3-week-old infants demonstrated chromatic discriminations, although their performance was somewhat better when one of the lights was long wavelength. Most 7-week-old infants could make chromatic discriminations, but they still demonstrated performance minima. The radiances of the test lights at the infants’ performance minima were used to generate a spectral luminous efficiency curve. This curve agreed with both the adult heterochromatic brightness matches measured at 30° of visual eccentricity in situ and the standard adult scotopic sensitivity curve V(λ) over the short- and mid-wavelength range but deviated from both adult curves for the 645-nm test stimulus on a 547-nm surround. The results suggest that rod-initiated signals play a major role in infants’ visual performance under the conditions tested.
© 1988 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Davida Y. Teller and Delwin T. Lindsey
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 6(12) 1945-1954 (1989)
Angela M. Brown
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 5(12) 2145-2158 (1988)
Martin S. Banks and Patrick J. Bennett
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 5(12) 2059-2079 (1988)