Subjectively, color does not feel like an optional dimension to be extracted only when necessary, but an automatically represented property of our entire visual field; that subjective impression is not true

Cohen, Michael, and Jordan Rubenstein. 2019. “How Much Color Do We See in the Blink of an Eye?.” PsyArXiv. July 28. doi:10.31234/osf.io/enywt

Abstract: Visual experience is painted in color. A change in hue or saturation can dramatically alter our understanding of a scene and how we feel about it. Subjectively, color does not feel like an optional dimension to be extracted only when necessary, but an automatically represented property of our entire visual field. Here, we ask whether that subjective impression is true. Using a variant of an inattentional blindness paradigm, we showed observers snapshots of colorful scenes when unbeknownst to them, an image was presented that was either desaturated or hue rotated across an overwhelming majority of the images. Although observers fixated on these images long enough to identify and describe them, a large number of observers were completely unaware of these drastic color manipulations. These findings suggest that much of our experience of a colorful world may be a confabulation.