Daltonization Enhances Working Memory Performance in Color Vision-deficient Observers

Ivana Jakovljev; Neda Milić-Keresteš; Sunčica Zdravković

doi:10.19090/pp.v18i4.2610

Authors

Ivana Jakovljev Laboratory for Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8125-1466
Neda Milić-Keresteš Department of Graphic Engineering and Design, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7956-5183
Sunčica Zdravković Laboratory for Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia; Laboratory for Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3254-8551

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v18i4.2610

Keywords:

Color Vision, Color Vision Deficiency, Working memory, Daltonization, Color correction

Abstract

Daltonization methods are image adaptation techniques that adjust screen colors to aid people with color vision deficiency (CVD). Though their effectiveness in boosting the hue’s dissimilarity has been documented, it was not entirely clear to what extent they improve color processing. The purpose of our study was to measure the direct contribution of daltonization to color working memory.

Two different types of daltonization methods were tested: severity–based (SB) enhancing red-green contrast and type-based (TB) enhancing blue-yellow contrast. We used simple behavioral tasks while measuring speed and accuracy. Participants in our experiments were asked to find the target color among the two presented choices (2AFC task). The colors were either presented simultaneously (perception task) or sequentially (memory task).

Both daltonization methods significantly improved CVD participants’ performance on both tasks and with both measures, with stronger effects found in the memory task. The effects of the TB method were robust across tasks, while the effects of the SB method were smaller and dependent on the level of enhanced red-green contrast when colors needed to be remembered.

We confirmed the previously reported effects of daltonization and demonstrated that these effects extend to the level of short-term retention of color information. Based on the differences in the effects of the two daltonization methods under varying cognitive demands, we identified the specific conditions under which each method supports cognitive functions. Consequently, our findings enable precise application decisions: using daltonization for promoting fast discrimination vs. enhancing memory during material learning.

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