Effect of Colors on Visual Accuity?

I am doing the IB and i want to do my extended essay on something like 'the effect of different colored letters on visual acuity. i was wondering if different coloured lights actually effect vision acuity or not? and also if their are at least 2 researches done on this? also if their is a biological scientific explanation to this?Thanks
- Ashly Khan (age 17)
Dubai

Hello Ashly,

Your project sound interesting.   Although we are not experts in this subject we do know that there are physics effects on visual acuity.   The first thing to say is that there are two kinds of photo receptors in the eye, rods and cones.   See for a lengthy discussion.  There are differences in their responses to both light intensity and light color.  In addition their retinal distributions are quite different.  That means there may be differences that depend on the peripheral position of the source.

In sum, there are many possible experiments to do.  You can vary intensity, color, on-off axis etc, etc.  Good luck and let us know what you find out.

LeeH

 

 

(published on 05/04/2015)