For the record, I now believe the people who say it changes for them, because it did for me!
Yesterday all the pics looked definitely blue/black to me. Then today a little picture of the dress popped up in a news feed that was white/gold. I clicked on the link to see what was going on, but in the linked page the dress was blue/black. So I went back to the picture that had been white/gold and now that dress was blue/black! The difference may have been that the one I saw as white/gold was only a snippet of the picture, so my reference for illumination was different than in the original whole-dress pictures. But after looking at the whole-dress picture I kept that illumination level as a frame of reference and imposed it on the snippet. (Just went back to see if the smaller picture had "reset" to white/gold. Now it looks white/gold at first, but the blue quickly fades in.) So, make of that what you will. Lenore Frigo [email protected] ________________________________________ From: Miguel Roig [[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2015 4:06 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] Is This Dress Red And Green? This morning I found a nice NY Times graphic showing how different levels of illumination affect the perceived colors of the dress: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/28/science/white-or-blue-dress.html. The question that remains for me is why different people arrive at such different interpretations of the amount of illumination present in the picture. Miguel ________________________________________ From: Miguel Roig [[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2015 12:52 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] Is This Dress Red And Green? Mike Palij contacted me off list (he had reached his quota of posts for the day) with this link, http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/the-science-behind-the-black-and-blue--or-white-and-gold--dress-405695555960 which clearly shows that different individuals are seeing the different colored versions of the dress under the same viewing conditions. So, my original thought that the effect was due to “some type of color deficiency on the part of some of the viewers or perhaps some unusual viewing effect” analogous to viewing old rear projecting screens TVs are both wrong. Frankly, I am not happy with the explanations that I have read or heard so far and I am not sure that the Mondrian explanation posted by Chris Green is sufficient. I now lean more toward an explanation that is closer to Gilchrist’s based on the paper posted by Deborah S Briihl. If I am interpreting/recollecting that work correctly, the perception of color of the dress seems to depend on an individual difference in interpretation of how much illumination/brightness occurring within the picture. Those seeing gold and white are interpreting a high level of illumination, relative to those seeing the true colors of the dress (black and blue). I realize that the above is a most unsatisfying explanation, but that’s all I have now. Miguel ________________________________________ From: Miguel Roig [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 5:42 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: RE: [tips] Is This Dress Red And Green? Perhaps I am wrong, but my sense of the reported differences in the perceived color of the dress are simply due to differing viewing conditions. I have to believe that any _major_ individual difference in the perception of the dress occurring under the same viewing conditions has to be due to some type of color deficiency on the part of some of the viewers or perhaps some unusual viewing effect, such as the washed out picture of side-viewing vs the crisper picture of front-viewing of older, large-screen rear projection TVs of the 1990s. I thought that Land's Mondrian demonstration posted by Chris Green is right on the money in terms of an explanation. BTW, Land's Wikipedia bio is worth a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_H._Land. BTW, Mike, it's interesting that we have Gilchrist in common. I also took a couple of courses from him while at Rutgers-Newark and also had the privilege of viewing a number of his lightness constancy displays, including a miniature version of the small room display from his Science article that Debra posted; a most convincing demonstration. Gilchrist was also a member of my dissertation committee and was mentor of Fred Bonato who, I am happy to report, was elected as EPA president this year. Thanks to those of you who voted for him. Miguel ________________________________________ From: Mike Palij [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, February 27, 2015 11:59 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Cc: Michael Palij Subject: Re: [tips] Is This Dress Red And Green? All of the offered solutions fail to appreciate an important point which is why there is so much discussion about this on social media: Why is it that two people viewing the dress under the same conditions perceive the dress as having different colors? One needs to explain why there are individual differences not that one can see different colors under different conditions. Still looking for llamas. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. Alan Gilchrist was on the faculty at Stony Brook when I was a graduate student there and I took a perception seminar with him. I'm waiting for my Stony Brook fellow grad student Hugh Foley to chime in. ----------- Original Message ----------- On Fri, 27 Feb 2015 07:43:03 -0800, Christopher Green wrote: Edwin Land explained it to us oh so long ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DiCvHiDWiY ............... On Feb 27, 2015, at 9:13 AM, Mike Palij wrote: > The internet was caught up in a frenzy yesterday -- > no, I'm not referring to the llama video -- but about > an optical illusion that people did not realize was an > optical illusion. Indeed, it was an amazing demonstration > of how unquestioning a person can be of their perception > of things in the environment as well as the degree of > overconfidence they have in their own judgments. > > To see where you fall, check out the dress at the > following link and then select one of the multiple choice > answers: > http://swiked.tumblr.com/post/112158479910/trinititties-snacksandharts-swiked > > (a) The dress is red and green > (b) The dress is white and gold > (c) The dress is blue and black/brown > (d) What dress? > > Now, the explanations I've seen for this phenomenon > hasn't been completely satisfactory because they tend to > be vague and don't use the combined trichromaticity > theory-opponent process theory we all are familiar. For > one source of explanation, see the story on the Wired > website: > http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/ > and > http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/27/the-inside-story-of-the-white-dress-blue-dress-drama-that-divided-a-nation/ > A less neuroscience-ish explanation is provided here: > http://sploid.gizmodo.com/this-is-the-real-color-of-that-goddamn-white-and-gold-d-1688381523 > and > http://sploid.gizmodo.com/this-is-the-real-color-of-that-goddamn-white-and-gold-d-1688381523 > > So, which of the multiple choice answers is correct? > Why, (d) of course. .;-) > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=1632838.7e62b84813297f170a6fc240dab8c12d&n=T&l=tips&o=42342 or send a blank email to leave-42342-1632838.7e62b84813297f170a6fc240dab8c...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. 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