The elemental hues of short-wave and extraspectral lights

Abstract

The continuous judgmental color-naming technique was used to assess the elemental nature of hue names descriptive of short-wave and extraspectral lights. Subjects were instructed to describe the hue of a 3-deg, 1-sec, 1,000-Td light by assigning percentages to each of three or four response categories available for use in a particular session. Response categories were chosen from the following group: red, green, blue, yellow, violet, and purple. Test stimuli consisted of monochromatic lights ranging from 510 to 420 nm and various proportions of 400-and 700-nm light. Results from eight subjects showed the color names blue, red, and green to be necessary and sufficient in describing these lights. On the basis of criteria established for the elementalness of hues, blue, red, and green were determined to be elemental, whereas purple and violet were found not to be elemental. © 1981, Psychonomic Socie ty, Inc. All rights reserved.