A methodological validation of psychophysical approaches for quantifying the color discrimination capability of white light sources

In this study, three psychophysical approaches that quantify the color discrimination capability of white light sources were systematically compared. A total of 11 light sources, five of 5500 K and six of 3000 K, were tested in two groups using three typical psychophysical methods including the Farnsworth-Munsell100 Hue Test, real objects observation and color blocks comparison. The experimental results show that the examined approaches led to consistent conclusions on the color discrimination performance of lighting but differences in the robustness, complexity, and comprehensiveness of the methods were observed. Interestingly, sex difference in color discrimination was found to be influenced by visual judgment protocols. Based on this validation, methodological suggestions for future research on the color discrimination of lighting are proposed.