Abstract
During adaptation, two different letter strings (each five or six letters) were presented to subjects alternately, one in green and the other in magenta. The extent to which these letter strings subsequently elicited a color aftereffect was assessed. In different experiments, the chromatic letter strings consisted of words and nonwords. The results indicated that letter strings that form English words can contingently elicit a color aftereffect. This was the case even when the words were anagrams. There was no evidence that nonword letter strings could contingently elicit such an aftereffect, even when the nonwords conformed to English orthography. The results are relevant to understanding other contingent color aftereffects (McCollough effects), illusory color noted by computer operators who work at monochrome (green or amber) displays, and the processing of text.
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This research was supported by grants to L.G.A, and S.S. from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and from NIMH. Some of the data were presented at the joint meeting of the Experimental Division of the Canadian Psychological Association with the Experimental Psychology Society at Oxford in July 1987, at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Seattle in November 1987, and at the 24th International Congress of Psychology in Sydney in August 1988. Appreciation is expressed to Andrew Baker for early inspiration, and to Shannon Radigan and Jasmine Mijatovic for running some of the subjects.
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Allan, L.G., Siegel, S., Collins, J.C. et al. Color aftereffect contingent on text. Perception & Psychophysics 46, 105–113 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204969
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204969