In order to determine the degree to which colour defective observers can effectively use nonredundant colour-coded information on a visual display unit, a choice reaction time experiment was conducted. The effect of advance training, stimulus size, and simultaneous colour contrast was explored. Although all groups of subjects, including normal trichromats, experienced difficulties in performing the experimental task, all colour defective observers performed worse than those with normal colour vision. Within the group of colour defectives, anomalous trichromats performed significantly better than did dichromats. Among dichromats, deuteranopes had significantly better results than did protanopes. The performance of all subjects was negatively influenced by simultaneous colour contrast (in particular, green-yellow and cyan-white). The differences among all groups were qualitative rather than quantitative, implying that conditions under which normal trichromats show optimal performance will be the same for colour defectives. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 268805.
Abstract