Abstract
The colors might be special for self-motion perception and vection. There is still a controversy about the different effects of different colors on vection strength. In the present study, we investigated whether the subjective colorfulness, the numbers of colors, the types of motion stimuli and the color preferences, could modify vection strengths respectively.For the subjective colorfulness, we employed two experiments by using two types of motion stimuli (EXP1; expanding circular grating and EXP2; expanding dot optic flow). Color conditions (red, blue, purple, yellow, brown, pink, green, and white and also high, middle, low saturations respectively) which were conducted randomly. The participants were asked to press a button while they were perceiving vection, rate the vection strength and subjective colorfulness (both 0 to 100) after each trial. In Experiment 1, vection became the strongest in the control (black and white) condition. However, the subjective colorfulness correlated with magnitude positively. Experiment 2 showed that the effects of color and the subjective colorfulness had a much weaker effect than that in Experiment 1. These results suggest that colors have a significant effect for vection induction. Colored stimuli might inhibit vection. However, the subjective colorfulness has a positive enhancing effect on vection at the same time. For the color preferences, we employed the dot optic flow colored in seven different colors (red, green, blue, purple, pink, brown and yellow). The participants were asked to rate the vection strength and also the color preferences (both 0 to 100) after each trial. The result showed that the subjective color preference significantly correlated with three vection indices positively. The preferred colored vection stimuli could induce stronger vection. In conclusion, colors had significant effect on vection strength.