Color Theory
Hering disagreed with the leading theory developed mostly by Thomas Young and Hermann von Helmholtz. Helmholtz's theory stated that the human eye perceived all colors in terms of three primary colors: red, green, and blue. Hering instead believed that the visual system worked based on a system of color opponency. Hering's proposal is now widely recognized as nearer to the neurophysiological truth, while the red, green, blue primaries dominate in the engineering of color reproduction.
Hering looked more at qualitative aspects of color and said there were six primary colors, coupled in three pairs: red–green, yellow–blue and white–black. Any receptor that was turned off by one of these colors, was excited by its coupled color. This results in six different receptors. It also explained afterimages.
Read more about this topic: Ewald Hering
Famous quotes containing the word theory:
“... the first reason for psychology’s failure to understand what people are and how they act, is that clinicians and psychiatrists, who are generally the theoreticians on these matters, have essentially made up myths without any evidence to support them; the second reason for psychology’s failure is that personality theory has looked for inner traits when it should have been looking for social context.”
—Naomi Weisstein (b. 1939)