DETECTION AND RECOGNITION OF COLORED SIGNAL LIGHTS

Two experiments were designed to determine effective colors for stimulus lights as measured by speed of detection and accuracy of identification. In addition, the nature of the interactions between stimulus color, background color, and amount of ambient illumination was assessed. Responses to four stimulus lights (red, green, yellow, and white) were evaluated against four colored backgrounds (copper, tan, blue, and green) under two levels of ambient illumination. The overall ordering of stimulus colors as measured by speed of responding was, from fastest to slowest, red, green, yellow, and white. For errors in color naming, the order from least to most was green, red, white, and yellow. Detection and identification were more difficult under bright ambient illumination. The addition of an identification task added about 0.25 second to the response times for each color.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1329271
• Corporate Authors:

  Johns Hopkins University Press

  2715 North Charles Street
  Baltimore, MD  United States  21218-4363
• Authors:
  • Reynolds, R E
  • White, R M
  • Hilgendorf, R L
• Publication Date: 1972-6

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 227-236
• Serial:
  • Human Factors
  • Volume: 14
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0018-7208
  • EISSN: 1547-8181
  • Serial URL: http://hfs.sagepub.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Color; Human factors; Safety; Signaling; Visual perception
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00043998
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 1 1976 12:00AM