The change of seasons can bring about a change in people. Allergies hit in the spring, moods change in the sunny summer and dreary cold of winter, but what about vision? Does your vision change with the season? According to new research, it can.
Scientists at the University of York studied the effects of the seasons on how people perceive colour, particularly the colour known as unique yellow. According to the university, there are four unique hues, blue, green, yellow and red. Unique yellow is the most recognized by a cross-section of the population.
Researchers theorized that what we see around us affects how we see the world. To test the theory, they brought in 67 people to a darkened room and used a machine called a colourimeter to pinpoint what they believed was unique yellow. They did this in January and then again in June.
“What we are finding is that between seasons our vision adapts to changes in the environment,” lead author Lauren Welbourne said in announcing the findings. “So in summer when there is a much larger amount of foliage, our visual system has to account for the fact that on average we are exposed to far more green.”
Welbourne says this information shows how much more we are still learning about the way the human eye works and how adaptable we are to changes in our surroundings.