How do you know that the color red I see is the same color red you see?Although it's a classic marijuana-fueled question that is easy to dismiss, comparing the subjective experience of "red" raises questions about the nature of consciousness for philosophers, neuroscientists, and psychologists. In a new study, researchers from the University of Tokyo and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, found strong evidence that individuals with the same level of color vision have equivalent experiences.
Previous studies … asked people to rate the likeness of pairs of colours and then mapped these colour relationships, labelling the position of each colour. Comparing these positions – under the assumption that one person's red will align with someone else's – provides some information about how we perceive colour, but, crucially, it cannot fully rule out the possibility that one person's red could be another person's green, says [author Masafumi] Oizumi.
Oizumi and their co-authors had participants rank the similarity of pairs of colors on an eight-point scale. A map was created for each participant. Crucially, the color names were removed when a computer model was used to compare maps from different participants. The results showed alignment between the color similarity structures for participants with normal color vision. The results for color-blind participants showed similar alignment with each other.
This methodology rules out the possibility of color inversion, so the red I see really is the same as the red you see.
Previously: Stoners don't lack motivation, according to University of Cambridge study
