Anyone who has ever stared in despair at a paint color chart will know that distinguishing shades is not always the easiest task.
Due to our biological differences, some people seem to have no trouble separating the subtlest shades, while others have a hard time finding a matching pair of socks.
If you’ve ever wondered where you fall on this color spectrum, a new test will reveal how you compare to your peers.
The deceptively difficult test asks you to rank colors according to their hues.
So what’s your color IQ? Take the test at this link To find out.
To see where you fall on the color IQ spectrum, this test can determine how your color perception compares to other people your age.
The test, created by X-rite Pantone, is a simplified version of something called the Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue Test, which was developed in the 1940s by a scientist named Dean Farnsworth.
The real test is a physical box containing 100 small tokens, each with a different color on top.
As in the online version, participants are asked to sort the pieces by shade and are given a score based on how many tiles they placed incorrectly and how far away they are from errors.
This test works by assessing your ability to detect small differences between similar colors.
To test, click and drag the color tiles so that they are arranged by hue, creating a smooth gradient from the two fixed colors at either end.
Once you have completed all four tests, click “Grade My Test” to get your results.
Once you’ve completed the test, enter your age and gender to see how you compare to other people in your demographic.
The test will also ask you your age and gender so you can see where you fit in compared to the best and worst scorers for your demographic.
You will receive ‘points’ for your mistakes, so the lower your score the better, with zero being a perfect score.
However, don’t be surprised if you end up with a lower score than expected, especially if you’re a man.
One in 255 women has some form of colour deficiency, but this figure is as high as one in 12 in men.
We can perceive color thanks to specialized cells in our eyes, called cones, which are specialized to detect long- or medium-wavelength light.
This test is based on the Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue test (pictured), which was developed in the 1940s by a scientist named Dean Farnsworth to assess people’s ability to perceive color difference.
In people with visual impairment or color blindness, some types of cones are missing or inactive.
This means that there will be regions of the visible light spectrum that your eyes will not be able to register, making it more difficult to perceive the difference between similar shades.
Our color perception also worsens as we age due to changes that occur in the lens of our eyes.
After age 40, the lens begins to yellow, reducing the amount of light that can reach the retina and altering our perception of colors.
This, together with the natural ageing of cone cells, means that older people may find the test more difficult.
One in 255 women and one in 12 men have some form of visual impairment. This may mean that while the letter in the image on the left is clear, the one on the right is much harder to spot.
However, if you get a lower than expected score on the test, it may not necessarily be due to a visual deficiency.
Research has shown that people’s perception of color can also be affected by factors in their environment.
Scientists at the University of Nevada have discovered that the distribution of perceived colors can be affected by something as subtle as the change of seasons.
Their study found that the color people identified as yellow changed depending on the time of year, even though activation in their rod cells remained the same.
In their paper, published in Network, the researchers wrote: “Seasonal climate changes alter both the average color in scenes and the way colors are distributed around the average.”
Test results can also be influenced by the lighting conditions around you. Incandescent lights (left) contain a very different spectrum of light than daylight (right), which will determine which wavelengths reach your eyes.
Similarly, factors such as lighting and the colors you can see in the background have a profound effect on the colors you see.
In a blog post, the test’s creators write: “Strange as it may seem, objects themselves have no color. They have properties that determine which wavelengths of light are absorbed and which are reflected.”
This means that the tone of the light that hits the object changes the wavelength of the light that reaches our eyes.
That’s why clothes you buy in stores under fluorescent lighting often look quite different when you take them out into the sunlight.
Because our brains are faced with more visual information than we can process, they have also “learned” what objects should look like.
Our brains make assumptions about how things look based on colors and expected lighting. That’s why the brown square looks different on the “shaded” side of the block than the brown square on top (left), even though you can see they’re actually the same color (right).
The famous “gold and white” dress is an example of how our assumptions about lighting change our perception of color. In this photo, you can see how the darker side of the dress appears bluer, while the lighter side appears white.
Typically, this helps us fill in the blanks in our visual perceptions and allows us to experience the world.
But when those assumptions go wrong, they can lead us to perceive the world’s colors incorrectly, in the form of optical illusions.
Just like the famous blue and black or white and gold dress, our brain makes assumptions about lighting conditions that actually change the colors we see.
Test results will vary considerably depending on whether you are outdoors in front of a green park or indoors in front of white walls.
This is why the actual Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue test is typically performed under standardized lighting conditions to eliminate any unwanted interference.
