Color appearance of iridescent objects

Iridescent objects and animals are quite mesmerizing to look at, since they feature multiple intense colors whose distribution can vary quite dramatically as a function of viewing angle. These properties make them a particularly interesting and unique stimulus to experimentally investigate the factors that contribute to single color impressions of multi-colored objects. Our stimuli were 3D printed shapes of varying complexity that were coated with three different types of iridescent paint. For each shape-color combination, participants performed single- and multi-color matches for different views of the stationary object, as well as single color matches for a corresponding rotating stimulus. In the multi-color matching task, participants subsequently rated the size of the surface area on the object that was covered by the match-identified color. Results show that single-color appearance of iridescent objects varied with shape complexity, view, and object motion. Moreover, hue similarity of color settings in the multi color match task best predicted single color appearance, however this predictor was weaker for predicting single color matches in the motion condition. Taken together our findings suggest that the single color appearance of iridescent objects may be modulated by chromatic factors, spatial-relations and the characteristic dynamics of color changes that are typical for this type of material.