A preliminary study of transparency with chromatic colors

We studied the perception of transparency of chromatic surfaces within five unidimensional color continua in two experiments. In the first experiment, we tested a model for the perception of the density of a transparent surface. The results suggested that judgment of the density in any of the five unidimensional color continua was the composite outcome of the two opposite tendencies to judge background visibility at lower densities, and to judge surface salience at higher densities. In the second experiment, we tested Metelli’s conditions for the occurrence of the kind of transparency that involves the perception of density. The results showed that these conditions were valid in all five unidimensional color continua. © 1989, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.