Color matching at high illuminances: the color-match-area effect and photopigment bleaching.

We evaluated whether a self-screening hypothesis can account for changes in red-green color matches with changes in retinal illuminance and changes in the size of the matching field. The dependence of the color match on field size measured at moderate illuminances was not present at high illuminances. For color matches made with normal pupil entry, there was no need to postulate any factors other than self-screening to account for the changes with either illuminance or field size. The self-screening model allowed us to estimate the optical density of the foveal cones and the retinal illuminance that caused half of the photopigment to be bleached at equilibrium. These estimates were in quantitative agreement with previous estimates made using other techniques. We also found that the change in a color match with increasing illuminance was inconsistent with first-order kinetics.