Do your eyes see the same colours?

[HareBrain]

Following the success of my research into the shape of people's feet, here's another one.

If I look at a white or pale-grey surface, such as my computer keyboard, with first one eye closed and then the other, the colour cast is different. With my right eye it's warmer/redder, with my left it's colder/greener. I've noticed this before, too, outdoors with coloured lenses on: the colour cast will be different between the eyes.

Does this make me (any more of) a freak, or is it quite common?

[pyan]

Mine seem exactly the same, HB...

[BookStop]

Mine seem the be same as well, although i'm really noticing now that my right eye is a lot more blurry than the my left. Eek.

[nixie]

mine seem the same too

[Ursa major]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

If I look at a white or pale-grey surface, such as my computer keyboard, with first one eye closed and then the other, the colour cast is different. With my right eye it's warmer/redder, with my left it's colder/greener. I've noticed this before, too, outdoors with coloured lenses on: the colour cast will be different between the eyes.

Do you alter the order in which you look through them. (If you always cover/close a particular eye first, this may affect the result.)

[The Judge]

I was about to post the same finding, Ursa. I shall leave it for the scientific literate to explain why this is.

[Ursa major]

Did anyone see that "scientific" follow up to The Young Ones (the recent effort with, I think, Dicky Bird and Lionel Blair, not the one where Neil is always cooking lentils).

I watched about five minutes (of the follow-up), where they were trying to prove that seeing words about old age made you walk slower. (They measured the speed of walk on the way in to a fake word test and on the way out.) There seemed to be some stairs (only a few steps, but down on the way in, up on the way out).

Was there a control experiment, without the "old age" words? Or one where the words were "youthful"? Did they say how many people took part in the test?

Without knowing the answers to these, I don't really want to say that the experiment was a load of old (or young) nonsense, though I suspect it was.

[Anne Lyle]

I don't normally see differently with each eye (apart from focal differences!) but there are exceptions. E.g. if I'm lying on my side in bed and one eye is actually getting more light than the other, there are differences in contrast, saturation, etc.

As for what's causing your colour difference, I would guess that the lens in one eye, or perhaps the aqueous humour, has a slight tint to it. There are reports of UV light causing yellowing of the lens, to the extent that some equatorial cultures have no separate words for blue and green because adults can't tell them apart.

Hope this helps!

[HareBrain]

Originally Posted by Ursa major

Do you alter the order in which you look through them. (If you always cover/close a particular eye first, this may affect the result.)

No, this doesn't seem to affect it -- swapping back and forth between them several times in succession gives the same result. I've also tried to make sure the result isn't being affected by the position of the light-source.

Interesting point about the yellowing of the lens, Anne, thanks, though why one lens would be more affected than the other, I don't know. (Perhaps the patch I wore in my early pirate career is responsible.)

[Precise Calibre]

As an added question, have both eyes been open and exposed to the same light level for the same amount of time at the time or this particular trial? Your eyes will see things in different hues depending on what you have exposed them to previously. In addition, each eye often has its own focusing time, meaning that while one eye may adjust to changes in light rapidly, the other might be a bit slower.

I've noticed what you speak up, but it's usually as a result of either having had a distinct difference in light on my left and right side, or because I had my left or right eye closed or covered for some reason (such as lying on my side in bed and getting up to see this difference).

[HoopyFrood]

Man, I'm so glad someone finally mentioned this, I thought it was just me.

I have noticed that it seems to be more noticeable when I'm in bright light, or one eye has been subjected to more light (I think that one usually goes bluer/'colder').

[HareBrain]

Originally Posted by Precise Calibre

As an added question, have both eyes been open and exposed to the same light level for the same amount of time at the time or this particular trial?

Yes, both eyes have been open as long as each other, and the result is the same whether I have the room lights on my left or right side.

I first noticed this when mountain-biking with orange lenses on. The effect was even more marked then, but I thought it might be because the sun was on one side of me. Having done more controlled experiments indoors, I think there is a genuine difference, and Hoopy's response suggests it's not just me.

The big question now of course is: is there a correlation with the shape of people's feet?

[Dozmonic]

When I was young I used to lie on the carpet and look at the ceiling. If I put my hand between my eyes - acting like a screen - and looked straight up, I'd notice that one side of the ceiling was yellower than the other.