The Effects of Aging and Illuminance on Perceived Saturation: Direct Scaling and Paired Comparison Scaling

Abstract

Color perception in older individuals is affected by the aging of the ocular system. Previous studies have explored the effects of aging on perceived saturation by asking study participants to assign a proportion of overall chromatic content to each stimulus in a series (direct scaling). This investigation aimed to (1) reveal differences in perceived saturation between younger and older observers based on two different scaling methods, namely conventional direct scaling and paired comparison scaling; and (2) examine the effects of three different illuminance levels on perceived saturation. The results indicate that when using direct scaling for high-saturation colors, older observers perceived less saturation than younger subjects. This difference was not observed for trials with low-saturation colors. When paired comparison scaling was used, perception of saturations for yellow and blue, or blue-green, in older observers was different from that in younger observers. Illuminance did not influence perceived saturation in either group.