A Scientific Question.

[alexgb00]

My simple question is this: do you think it's possible that each person's eyes see different colors?

I don't mean color-blindness, but that each pair of eyes sees different shades. For example, Jerry's blue is my green, and my yellow is seebs' purple? And could it be that my eyes have never even "imagined" the same colors as LiveFreeOrDie. It sounds sort of silly, i know, but consider it and say what you think.

God bless you.
Alex

 

[aaron]

a

 

[LewisWildermuth]

I believe it is possible if not likely given the random way the brain is wired... But not to the extreem of yellow to purple or even blue to green. It would be more likely a slight shift one way or the other.

Colour is important to finding food and the like so any animal that had too much of a shift in colour perception would be at a disadvantage.

 

[aaron]

a

 

[Arikay]

Although I think most people see the same colors, its possible. Not only there but there are some people that see sound and hear colors, etc.

Originally posted by alexgb00
My simple question is this: do you think it's possible that each person's eyes see different colors?

I don't mean color-blindness, but that each pair of eyes sees different shades. For example, Jerry's blue is my green, and my yellow is seebs' purple? And could it be that my eyes have never even "imagined" the same colors as LiveFreeOrDie. It sounds sort of silly, i know, but consider it and say what you think.

God bless you.
Alex

 

[JohnR7]

Originally posted by alexgb00
My simple question is this: do you think it's possible that each person's eyes see different colors?

I don't mean color-blindness, but that each pair of eyes sees different shades. For example, Jerry's blue is my green, and my yellow is seebs' purple? And could it be that my eyes have never even "imagined" the same colors as LiveFreeOrDie. It sounds sort of silly, i know, but consider it and say what you think.

Perhaps the person to talk to would be Martha Steward. As much as you may or may not like her attitude, she has an ability to pick colors that appeal to everyone.

For me, I have trouble mixing colors. If I were to try, I would most likely end up with mud, where a artist would end up with some real pretty colors. 

Depressed people tend to see the world as very drab. The colors are not as intense and vivid because they have a shortage of the seritum chemical in their brain. Or the brain receptors do not pick up that chemical if it's there.

Of course people who need glasses see the world as blured, where a person with 20-20 vision sees things very sharp. I have to wonder about people like Van Gogh or Monet if they actually saw their world the way they painted it.

Color is actually in the light. The shade or the object itself, just absorbs or reflects different color. White reflects everything, black absorbs everything. People wear black and darker colors in the winter to absorb the heat. They wear bright colors in summer to reflect the heat from the sun. Of course the skin, eyes and hair is just the opposite. Dark skin reflects the rays from the sun. White skin absorbs sun. For people who live far north, their skin tends to get very white so they can absorb as much sun as possible.

I think there can be a range of difference in people between the brightness and intensity of the color. But the shade most likely is consistant from person to person.

When I use to work in theater, we could put a flesh colored outfit on someone, then with the proper lighting, we could make them look as if they did not have any clothing on at all. Or we could put a white outfit on them, and use different filters on the light to make it look like their outfit was changing colors.

The eyes are pretty easy to "trick" and if you can control the lighting, you can control people's reality. In theater we could take them into another world, then at the end we would return them back to the world they came from.

 

[Mechanical Bliss]

Originally posted by JohnR7
Perhaps the person to talk to would be Martha Steward. As much as you may or may not like her attitude, she has an ability to pick colors that appeal to everyone.

 

Depressed people tend to see the world as very drab. The colors are not as intense and vivid because they have a shortage of the seritum chemical in their brain. Or the brain receptors do not pick up that chemical if it's there.

I do disagree with this however. First of all, I think you mean the neurotransmitter seratonin. I read something a few days ago about the examination of brain sections of people with depression who committed suicide and they had a higher-than-average concentration of neurons producing/receiving seratonin. I'm not sure that this leads to the conclusion that people with depression see colors as less intense, however, nor do I think depressed people necessarily see less intense colors to begin with. I think that depressed people see the world as drab from an emotional standpoint rather than necessarily from a visual input standpoint as well.

Color is actually in the light. The shade or the object itself, just absorbs or reflects different color.

This and the rest is what I agree with for the most part. Color is the result of the absorption of certain wavelengths of light and the reflection of others, from what I understand. Since these wavelengths are intrinsic properties and since we have no reason to believe that, on average, the human brain is "wired" for different people to interpret these wavelengths differently as we essentially all have similar brain structures, I'd say that color doesn't really vary from person to person. At least that seems to make the most sense to me.

 

[alexgb00]

You make lots of interesting points, John. I'm not an expert in the field, though.

By the way... I've heard that Vincent Van Gogh was an epileptic, and seeing an "aura" around points of light is supposed to be a symptom, so by his "Starry Night," some conclude that he had epilepsy. That's interesting, too, how he used different colors for different moods. Some of his portraits make me feel so sympathetic toward the person in the picture.

OK, that's all i can say right now.
Alex

 

[lucaspa]

Originally posted by alexgb00
My simple question is this: do you think it's possible that each person's eyes see different colors?

I don't mean color-blindness, but that each pair of eyes sees different shades. For example, Jerry's blue is my green, and my yellow is seebs' purple? And could it be that my eyes have never even "imagined" the same colors as LiveFreeOrDie. It sounds sort of silly, i know, but consider it and say what you think.

Yes, but like Lewis, not at the extremes you are talking.

We have reference colors that can be shown to seebs, Jerry, you, and I.  IOW, we can take a "green" object and put it next to squares of green, yellow, red, and purple and ask each of us to tell us which square matches the object.  Now, if your "yellow" is really everyone else's green, then you will pick the yellow box.

So, while perceptions of shades might be different, the wholesale shifting that you propose is not.

 

[seebs]

I dunno about that.

Imagine, if you will, that we take my friend Dave, who's red-green color blind, and we find out that, in fact, we can cure his color blindness; the sensor for red/green is there, it's just not "hooked up".

So, we do that.

Now... Can you suggest any way in which we can tell whether we hooked it up backwards?

To go at this another way:

Most color sorting is based, in part, on blue/yellow and red/green separations; these four colors are the things your brain is sensing and sorting out. (That's why those *four* colors are the main ones used in kid's toys.)

So, somewhere in your head, there's a thing that's reporting whether something is mostly yellow, or mostly blue. Let's say that, after you've learned to see and name colors, we go in and do some molecular-level neurosurgery, and *flip* them. When looking at a yellow thing, you now have the cognitive experience you used to have when looking at a blue thing, and vice versa.

So, you look up into a clear sky, and it looks "yellow" to you.

Now... Can you prove that your brain didn't just form that way?

We can tell that you're perceiving the same wavelengths that I am. I don't think we can tell whether or not your experience of them is the same as mine.

 

[gladiatrix]

Originally posted by Arikay
Although I think most people see the same colors, its possible. Not only there but there are some people that see sound and hear colors, etc.

Just as a point of interest here, the phenomenon Arikay refers to is called==> SYNAETHESIA (most of the following info lifted from intro page)

Synesthesia is defined as an involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal association. In real language that means that there is a crossing of the senses. Having one sense stimulated would cause a stimulation in another sense as well. This would be like a ringing bell being heard and seen(maybe as a flash of light).

It comes from Greek with syn meaning together and aisthesis, perception. So, literally it is a joining of sensations.

What does this mean? When people see a color, there will be a sound and/or odor attached to it. For instance such a person upon hearing a baritone male voice might say "he has a rich BROWN voice". These individuals tend to be highly intelligent and very creative. It is as though the "crossing" of the wires between the senses actually enhances these faculties. Many famous artists and musicans are synaesthetes.

DIAGNOSTIC FEATURES
There are five main diagnostic features of synesthesia, as defined by Cytowic:

• the sensations are involuntary: they can not be surpressed or incurred, though the intensity is influenced by the situation they occur in
• the sensations are projected into the environment: it is not just in the head but the person actually sees a sound or hears a picture, etc.
• the sensations are durable and generic: every time you hear a bell you always see red, it doesn't change over
• time or situation and will always be experienced with the stimulus
• the sensations are memorable: they are often the aspect of something that is remembered best. For example
• it may be easier to remember that a person's name is yellow than the name, although the color helps to recall the name
• the sensations are emotional: having this experience causes ecstasy and is viewed as an accomplishment

WHO HAS IT???
Incidence:

• one in every 25,000 people born have synesthesia, but this estimate is thought to be low

Women:

• studies done in the United States show that three times as many women as men have synesthesia
• Studies from UK reveal that eight times as many women as men are affected

Lefties:

• it appears more frequently among left-handed people

Families:

• it is seen as genetic, probably through the x-chromosome, and is dominant, rather than recessive
• 15% of people who have synesthesia have a history of someone in their first degree family having dyslexia, autism, or attention deficit disorder.

Experience:

• the synesthetic experience is different for every individual. For example, among people who see letters as colored, there is not a set color for each letter from person to person. Everyone has their own colored alphabet.

For more on this fascinating condition go HERE

 

[seebs]

Note that synesthesia isn't all-or-nothing. I'm very mildly synesthetic; timbres have colors to me. (String instruments are a rich emerald green, for instance). Tim Berners-Lee, if memory serves, has a clear sense of the "color" of every letter; according to him, the "w" in "www" is green.

 

[Arikay]

Thanks for the info, I was trying to remember what the name for it was, but my brain gave out on me.

 

[gladiatrix]

Originally posted by seebs
Note that synesthesia isn't all-or-nothing. I'm very mildly synesthetic; timbres have colors to me. (String instruments are a rich emerald green, for instance). Tim Berners-Lee, if memory serves, has a clear sense of the "color" of every letter; according to him, the "w" in "www" is green.

How interesting! When and/or how did you discover you were a synasthete? (If you don't mind my asking, that is)

Originally posted by Arikay
Thanks for the info, I was trying to remember what the name for it was, but my brain gave out on me.

You're welcome! It's a fascinating subject IMO.

 

[seebs]

Originally posted by gladiatrix
How interesting! When and/or how did you discover you were a synasthete? (If you don't mind my asking, that is)

Heh. When I was a kid, I always assumed that's why they were called "brass" instruments - they're that rich warm-yellow-orange color.

It's very mild in me; most of the time, all I have is acquired associations, but they're fairly strong. If I ate something the first time I read a book, I may be able to remember the flavor pretty well every time I
read that book, for instance.

Really, timbres are the only thing I reliably have an extra sense of. I don't get colors from letters or words strongly enough to be able to name them - I'm not sure I get them at all.