Contrast/Color Card Procedure: A New Test of Young Infants?? Color Vision

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Abstract
We have developed a new test which can rapidly evaluate basic color vision in individual infants. The test consists of a series of large cards constructed with Muncell Hues. It uses a modified preferential looking procedure (FPL) and, to control brightness cues, incorporates a two-phase systematic variation of luminance. First, we evaluate an infant's ability to discriminate 9.5 by 16° achromatic patches of varying luminance from a 26 by 65° achromatic background of midrange luminance. In the second phase the test patch is chromatic and its luminance, relative to the background, is varied over a range of about 1.0 log cd/m2. The number of relative luminances chosen for each infant depends upon his/her performance in phase 1. Seventy 2- and 3-month-olds were tested with 4 broad-band chromatic patches, a red (dominant λ=660 nm), a yellow (dominant λ=580 nm), a green (dominant λ=520 nm), and a blue (dominant λ=475 nm). Results showed that 3- month-olds had little difficulty making any of the chromatic- achromatic discriminations but many 2-month-olds appeared to fail to discriminate the yellow and green from the background at relative luminances close to an adult brightness match. Most importantly, the test shows promise as a relatively simple, time-efficient, and portable tool for the assessment of early color vision.

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