Is it possible that when we all 'see' a color;our mind actually sees different color?

Abhinav Dey

The following question was asked to me by a friend of mine-

I say,"Leaves(not counting the exceptions) are green!". You agree,"Yes,leaves are green!".But when I see the leaf, my mind senses a color 'A',when you see the same leaf your mind senses the color 'B'.We both have been taught that the leaf is green(That is, we ASSUME A equals B).But does ACTUALLY A equal B ?

(That is to hypothesize that when I see the leaf ,my mind sees blue(say),but I term it as green.Your mind sees red(say) on seeing the leaf, but you term it as green. )

mathman

This is really a biology question. It is a question of how the retina, optical nerve, and brain work.

The physical color (light wavelength mix) impinging on your eye is the same as that for anyone else.

Fladam

Person A and person B are made to look at an object of random colour. Light waves of distinct wavelengths travel from the object to each persons eye, then to the optical nerve where electrical impulses are sent to the brain and are then interpreted by the brain to provide a visual representation. Every part of the process is the same for each person, the only possible variable is the interpretation of the electrical impulses by the brain.

So does interpretation of the signals differ for each person?

In a fireworks display, multitudes of people watch explosions of colour and all react emotionally with aww, they all enjoy the colours that they see, they all have the same opinions, they all believe that the colours they are seeing are beautiful. If all of the people were seeing different colours then they would not all have the same opinion on the beauty of the colours. They all have consciously made the opinion that the colour, lets say red for example, is a beautiful colour, and they can change this opinion if they wish, they are not forced by society into believing that red is a beautiful colour, the only way they could all come to the same conclusion that red is beautiful is if they were interpreting the signals the same and therefore seeing the same colour.

Another example, often images are represented in 'false colour' to make certain details clearer, if everyone viewing the image saw different colours then some people would find the object more clear than originally but also some might see the colour less clearly than originally. So because the object appears more clear to everyone the electrical impulses it must be interpreted by the brain in the same way by everyone.

I think its safe to assume that we all see colours in the same way.

RoshanBBQ

Consider that most people find similar color patterns pleasing. It isn't a proof of anything, but I think that indicates people "see" the same color for a given excitation to the eye.

But I will briefly highlight a possible issue with this observation: It could be the case people find certain color combinations pleasing due to how often they see the certain combinations and in what circumstance. So perhaps many people like green, because many plants are green. If someone identified the color pink with green, he may gain the same affinity for pink as most do for green. So if you showed him a mellow, green painting, he would see a pink, mellow painting -- That is, his association of pink with nature and trees earned pink the quality of mellow or peaceful. So most people see certain wavelengths in the same proportion with other wavelengths as well as in the similar circumstances. And in this way, it may not matter what the person actually saw, he would still develop the same opinion about the colors as everyone else.

Q_Goest

This is called the "inverted spectrum", and yes, it is conceivable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_spectrum

Fladam

Roshan makes a very good point!

Another point I have just thought of, if we mix two colours, let's say red and blue together then we get purple. However if the colours looked different for you to begin with, perhaps the end product for each of us would be entirely different in appearance but also in name?

Here is something which you might enjoy Abhinav! http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2011/08/horizon.shtml

epenguin

That in my opinion is a false argument. The question is whether the purely sensuous experience of red and green that I have is reversed for you. I am not able to further describe in words what my sensation of 'redness' is. But is difficult to believe it, and the question, do not mean anything though someone is bound to claim that. Without the same sensuous experience we will nevertheless normally agree what things are red and what green. Your argument fails because sky is blue, trees and grass are green, blood is red and gold is gold for everyone, and therefore red will have the same emotional effects and associations on someone who sees it like I see green as red does on me. And going on from that the aesthetics, colour harmonies will probably be the same for different people who perceive colours differently.

The common circuitry argument is more convincing, but it is only a plausibility argument. I doubt we know enough about perception to be sure yet. For example the decision that someone's 'pure sensation', as distinct from their emotions or descriptions, is like another's could be made by accident or the result of very early experiences like on your first day after birth.

Cecilia48

This is really a biology question.

fsonnichsen

An investigation of Synthesia may shed an interesting perspective on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

Fritz

Philip Wood

I'd say it was a philosophical question. Apart from anything else, can anyone conceive of an experiment to determine whether my perception of pink is the same as yours? Or can anyone conceive of how this could be done by pure reasoning from acceptable premises? If, and I admit that it's an 'if', the thing can't be decided in either of these ways, then it's a good candidate for being a philosophical question. [David Hume recommended that written matter discussing such topics should be consigned to the flames as containing nothing but sophistry and illusion!]

Pythagorean

We are able to describe color perception though. We have warm and cool colors, we are mostly affected the same by te psychology of color, we don't like yellow writing on white paper because yellow is bright and annoying, yet fails to contrast. Contrast itself is something we all agree on precisely because the colors are the same for us, we can detect when people are a specific flavor of color blind, etc, etc.

epenguin

Is there a neurological condition where all avatars look the same?

tal444

For a while all I saw was Evo's avatar. Then I realized it was April 1st xD.

nitsuj

Sorry for the resurrection,

Today I was reading off some white paper in some really bright sunshine .

Came inside and of course all the colors were "off".

in photography I think it is called white balance.

I guess with our eyes, it's some sort of "desensitizing" of the specific color receptors in our eyes, semantics aside White Balance.

Clearly our eyes/brain whatever has a specific "white balance" it prefers.

Turns out the "white" on my monitor is actually quite reddish, as per my "white balancing" of my eyes color receptors.

So... is the white on my monitor actually white, or reddish white?

Even I don't see the same colors the same, But I still know what white is.

In other words, we all "see" colors the same, same white balance.



Better said here, if you see white the same as every one else, you're seeing the colors the same as them too. Wow, I can't normally reason that well lol,

So the questions is does everyone see white the same? Well, that's easy enough. It's black and white, literally

nmz787

its all relative, V.S. Ramachandran talks about how people with neurological damage or rarities can actually see numbers as different colors than letters... because a good amount of visual processing is actually offloaded to clusters of the brain.

I think the subjective 'look' of the world must be calibrated by the environment, and thus if you have an average person in an average environment, I would think they perceive color quite similarly.

nitsuj

Yes well seeing numbers as colors is abnormal, so lets exclude that.

I don't know how many color receptors we have, but I'd guess at three different colors. The "White balance" between those three determines the hue of the colors we see.

At that, if white appears as white than the other colors are "calibrated".

Flatland

I suppose people who are colorblind or people who are tetrachromatic could fall under this.