Psychophysical saturation scales and the spectral sensitivity in human vision

Summary For mixtures of white and colored lights, the intensity of the colored light necessary to produce a linear psychophysical saturation curve is determined. This intensity may be defined as equilibrium between chromatic and achromatic excitation. From a measurement of the equilibrium throughout the spectrum, a spectral sensitivity function may be derived. According to the hypothesis of Börsken and Hemminger (1980), this function describes the spectral sensitivity of the achromatic channel in human color vision.