Dermo-Optical Sensitivity and Perception: Its Influence On Human Behavior

Yvonne Duplessis, Ph.D. Director, Study Committee on Dermo-Optical Sensitivity

Paris, France

 

Abstract

From 1960 to the present, research conducted in the USSR, United States, England and France, have showed that the skin is sensitive to far infrareg invisible radiations of the electromagnetic spectrum.Dermo-optical sensitivity refers to the human organism's capacity to respond to colored surfaces, hidden ftom sight by being placed under screens, even when the latter are held at some distance in the dark.Dermo-optical perception refers to the ability of subjects to succeed in consciously differentiating these surfaces through their hands by non-visual subjective impressions. It is estimated this can only be done by one in six subjects. Controlled studies indicate support for the theory of dermo-optical sensitivity and perception. This finding provides a new potential confounding variable in color research. (int j Biosocial Res., 7(2); 76-93,1985.)

Introduction

What exactly is dermo-optical sensitivity?

Humans normally use their eyes to consciously distinguish the colors of their environment. Let us remember, however, that color is a sensation transmitted by the brain. It is provoked by the perception of certain luminous radiations that make up the visible spectrum between 380 and 780 nanometers (between violet and red). (1) The sensation of color can only exist by the reflection of visible light and when its radiation comes in contact with sight cells. Our eyes are only sensitive to a very restricted part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The skin is sensitive to a broader portion of the electromagnetic spectrum which we observe as a suntan caused by ultra-violet rays of the solar spectrum and the sensation of heat that accompanies

it, the latter essentially due to infrared rays.Up to this point, this is nothing new. But side by side with this visual perception of colors, it has recently been discovered that all humans have a permanent dermal sensitivity to colored surfaces in the environment. This is expressed not only by our unconscious reactions to light but even that experienced in total darkness and through opaque screens.(2)This ability has been widely contested, and still is, for it was theorized that the skin could " see ", which we believe is simply not true.We must realize that dermo-optical sensitivity is completely separate and distinct from vision. Some investigators have been convinced that the blind could be taught to see, which is also false.Furthermore, research done on dermo-optical sensitivity has shown that if one subject out of six succeeded in becoming aware of his reactions to colored surfaces, they may express them by subjective and non-visual impressions of either heat, weight or whatever. For example, a person might say that such and such a red surface was warmer or heavier or rougher than a blue surface.The skin radiates like a 'black body'(A), en-dtting energy largely found in the infrared spectrum. According to Kirchoff's laws, the skin absorbs the same radiation from the environment. There are, therefore, interactions between the skin and nearby materials.The interaction values depend on the spectrum composition of the colored surfaces, or of the " spectrance ", as R. Geslin has called it. (3) According to most researchers' hypotheses, it is this " spectrance " which induces the usually unconscious effects which may modify the individual's behavior, his auto-regulation, with respect to the environment. (3)This still largely unknown field and body of theories constitutes dermo-optical sensitivity research.But, as the word optical gives rise to confusion, we must make it clear that it simply means that the laws of contrast, of complementarity of colors, are found again. A red surface, for instance, will be better differentiated from a green surface than from a pink one.Furthermore, the intensity of the reactions and impression between the skin and environment may vary according to the distribution of colors in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.Dr. Novomeysky has represented these reaction distributions In what he has called: the dermo-optical circle.(7)

In natural daylight, their intensity increases from green, in the midddle of the lower half of the circumference, from one side in the direction of yellow, orange and red, and from the other side in the direction of light blue, dark blue and violet. At the same time red, orange and yellow stimuli act as opposite poles, in their qualities, to violet, dark blue and light blue stimuli. Green is perceived as neutral, indeterminate.But in incandescent light or in darkness, this distribution of the reactions to colors changes in the opposite direction, the strongest being induced by green, while the weakest by colors at the extremities of the spectrum, red and violet (Fig. 1 and 2). This inversion of the distribution of dermo-optical reactions might be emphasized for it must be considered in the practical applications of its effects on behavior.

(A)'black body' Thermal radiator which absorbs completely all incident radiation, whatever the wavelength, the direction of incidence of the polarization. This radiator has, for any wavelength, the maximum spectral concentration of radiant existence at a given temperature.(4)

Hence, invisible radiations of colored objects do not have special names, nevertheless we call them by the same names as the colors of the visible spectrum in order to codify them.Thus, when we speak of the influence of invisible radiation from objects on human behavior and psychic activity, we designate them as red, green, blue, etc.Let us point out that the word dermal does not mean tactile in the sense of direct touching of a surface, since, as has already been theorized and will be proven, colored surfaces may even elicit reactions beneath a transparent or opaque screen even if the subject stands at considerable distance.

The term dermal suggests that the skin contains receptors of information induced by infrared radiations - the spectrance - from colored surfaces.Though regular dermo-optical perception has been discussed in the literature since 1960 to the present time, the influence of invisible radiations on human behavior and psychic activity has been insufficiently studied. In the last part of this paper, the author has set herself the task of considering various aspects of such influence.

The Discovery of Dermo-optical Sensitivity

From the nineteenth century on the fact that colors could be perceived by means other than normal vision was frequently observed, most often under hypnosis.Surprisingly enough, it was the famous writer Jules Romains who reviewed such studies and discovered what he called " extra-retinal vision ".(5) He experimented, moreover, not on hypnotized subjects but on subjects without any special gifts, their eyes carefully blindfolded, or even on blind subjects or himself. Thereafter he considered that this function was inherent in all human beings and susceptible of development by training. His book attempts to retrace all the stages of the process by which " extra-retinal vision " can become conscious.(6)The results from these experiments were as follows: under normal light conditions paroptical perception continues clearly beyond the limits of visual perception and proved to be completely distinct from tactile perception. The best paroptically identifiable colors were red and yellow.The explanation given by Jules Romains was a physiological one. He had studied biology for two years and in 1908 took a degree in science. According to him, these phenomena probably came from ocelli or miniature eyes found all over the entire surface of the skin (photo-reception).However, this hypothesis has now been disproven. Yet it was considered to be an attempt to explain rationally this ability.Jules Romains' research was ill-received. Since it was the work of a writer whose scientific background was unknown, it did not receive serious attention.

Recent Studies of Dermo-optical Sensitivity

We had to wait for more than thirty years for the systematic study of the ability of a subject in the U.S.S.R. to detect colors placed under transparent or opaque screens for Romains' contentions to be re-evaluated.The phenomenon was termed dermo-optical sensitivity by Professor A. S. Novomeysky(7), a psychologist at the Sverdlovsk Pedagogical Institute in the U.S.S.R.For more than twenty years, he conducted experimental research with scientists in various fields including: physics, physiology, psychology, pedagogy, and even architecture. Experiments were carried out on school children and students from various universities.The working hypothesis was based on laws of physics.

In the United States, as early as 1963, Richard P. Youtz, Ph.D., a teacher of psychology at Barnard College in New York, had tested a woman who claimed that as a high-school senior she could identify the colors of objects with her fingers. He performed similar experiments with college students and blind subjects.(8)Then, in 1966, Dr. B. Carroll Nash, Ph.D., a professor of biology and a parapsychologists worked with subjects who, like Dr. Youtz's subjects, wore a head-box to preclude visual cues, and he found that thev " were able to distinguish black and red paper when directly touched or when covered with cellophane, but not when covered with glass. "(9a)Thus, Dr. Nash concluded: " It seems unlikely that the targets were identified by extra-sensory perception. " He attributed the results to a " cutaneous color sensitivity " which, according to the hypothesis of American psychologist W. L. Makous, Ph.D., " is based on the detection of differences in emissivity of infrared radiation of surfaces by their effects on the skin temperature ".(9b)In Europe, Dr. Benson Herbert carried out experimental research on dermo-optical sensitivity as early as 1967. He is still actively involved in this work in his laboratory in the south of England.(10)In France, about 1969, during the course of research on the connection of color and other sensations, we found evidence that blind subjects differentiated colored cards by means of sensations of heat or cold, roughness or smoothness, thickness or thinness, and, moreover, arrange the cards according to the colors of the spectrum.(11)This analogy with the distribution of wavelengths in the visible portion of the spectrum led us to design statistical experiments that would record the effects of colors with a dynamometer.

Methods

Reactions were recorded as two types: subjective ones, in which the subject becomes aware of his reactions through associated impressions; and objective ones, in which unconscious dermo-optical reactions were recorded and measured. First, we describe the subjective method.

A Subjective Method

Our method of developing dermo-optical perception is based on the associations expressed by the subject in describing the non-visual impressions they received in trying to differentiate between at least two colored surfaces.The subjects, all volunteers, learn to direct their attention to unusual and fugitive sensations in the tips of their fingers or in the palms of their hands.(12) After a quarter of an hour, the sensations tend to fuse with each other and the impressions fade away. Health conditions and day to day preoccupations often prevent the subjects from being able to concentrate, thus making it difficult to reach stable conclusions.

ProcedureThe subject is seated in front of an experimental box with his forearms in sleeves with elastic cuffs attached to the two openings in the box, the front of which may remain open or be closed by a cover. The subject's hands alone are inside the box.Some preliminary tests permit the experimenter to find out if the subject distinguishes stimuli more readily by impressions of heat or of weight, of thickness, etc., and then if he regulary receives the same impressions for the same color.Thus a kind of code is established between the colors and the corresponding feelings each subject reports.Then the stimuli to be differentiated are covered bv transparent or opaque screens, or their size is reduced and the subject is expected to be able to detect the stimuli by holding his hands some centimeters away from the source without touching it. The screen, opaque for the eyes, is transparent to the hand.(13)

Results

Analysis of the results reveals a distribution of impressions described by the selected volunteers in the form of the dermo-optical circle.In daylight, thermal impressions were hot for red, cold for blue with

those caused by orange, yellow and green somewhere between the extremes.Under incandescent electric light, most subjects perceived light blue and green as rough or hot compared to dark blue or red.Though the subjective method depends upon the quality of the irnpressions, rather than the intensity, statistical evaluations were made.(14)

Brief Discussion

One might well ask how we managed to find volunteers for such a monotonous series of experiments consisting of repetitious tests required for statistical purposes.They often came from long distances at regular intervals at least twice a month and, some of them, for years, which is surprising enough in a period when people are hard-working and generally have little time for disinterested research.However, some subjects find this temporary isolation from external visual images very relaxing. Others found the dialogue between hand and non-visible colored surfaces a new experience heretofore unknown.

Objective methods

These are the most important with respect to the explanatory hypothesis of dermo-optical effects, as well as to their possible applications.We shall indicate but two of these methods based on the muscular effects induced by non-visible colored surfaces.The first one was proposed by Professor A. S. Novomeysky and termed "color barriers " The second included our own dynamometrical method.In the part of this paper devoted to possible applications of this research, we shall briefly describe other methods in which they are directly based.

The Method of the Color Barriers

From 1960 until early 1970 a great number of investigations, which were carried out in the Soviet Union's Urals, were devoted to the question of an eventual relationship between the changes of position of the hands in space and the colored stimuli presented randomly to the subject under metal screens, while subjects were

blindfolded.In our studies, all the experiments were carried out double-blind.The subject placed his hand at a height of one meter above the stimulus, then lowered it along a measuring device, stopping when he felt an apparent obstacle such as a layer of cold or warm air, the so-called barrier.The distance between the position of the hand and the stimulus was automatically registered. The distribution of the reactions to colors corresponded to the respective heights of the hand.

Results

From numerous experiments, made with students of different universities, it was found that, in natural daylight the color barrier was the highest over a red stimulus, becoming lower overan orange one, even lower over a yellow one, and was the lowest over a green stimulus. Then the height of the barrier increased from green to light blue to violet.But in the experiments carried out incandescent light or in darkness, this distribution was found to change. The maximum height of the color barrier occurred over a green stimulus and the colors at the extremities of the spectrum: red and violet presented color barriers of minimum height.(15)

The Dynamometrical Method

Through repeated experiments, the French physiologist Charles Pere had already shown that excitation of the sense organs determines not only subjective effects but physiological reactions as well. Among others he used a dynamometer to test the effects of the visible colors on the muscular reactions of his subjects.(16)In 1970, we started to use a hand dynamometer in the testing of blind subjects' reactions, and later we tested subjects with normal eyesight according to the following procedure.

ProcedureThe subject places his hands in the experiment box. With one of them, he picks up,a piece of paper (16 x 12 cm Canson paper) from a randomly constituted pile placed inside the box. In his other hand, he holds the dynamometer, which is also inside the box. He squeezes it in response to the effect of the color stimulus unknown to him. The subject then replaces the papers in a pile in the same order in which he had tested them.All the tests are carried out double-blind. The hand dynamometer is connected

to a galvanometer outside the box and in front of the experimenter who has only to write down the figures denoting the pressures induced by the different colored papers.Once the experiment is completed, the experimenter merely picks up the pile and compares the order of the measurements with the corresponding order of colors.The subjects were unaware of exerting different degrees of pressure, but the results showed that they did.The results were collected slowly. Four or five trials by color were carried out by the same hand. In the course of the experiment, the hand quickly becomes tired by successive squeezing of the dynamometer.About fifty subjects were tested and the results of those who made at least thirty trials by color were statistically analyzed according to the student's t -tesl Among those tested were five blind subjects.

Results

Muscular effect was maximal on the dynamometer in natural daylight when the subject held a piece of red or dark-blue paper in his other hand. The muscular reactions lessened in the presence of orange and yellow sheets and became minimal in the presence of a green stimulus, increasing again in the presence of green to light then dark blue. Maximum squeeze was induced by a black stimulus.But in conditions of half-light, or when there was incandescent light in the room, the distribution of squeezes changed. For a number of subjects the maximum squeeze was induced by colors which were in the middle of the spectrum: yellow, green, light blue, while the minimum effort was induced by colors which were at the extremities of the spectrum: red and violet.(17)However, it is interesting to observe that the results obtained, independently, by these two different methods were analogous.

Applications

The dermo-optical effects might be used to regulate human behavior according to the non-visible or visible colors of the person's environment.

A. Non-visible colored surfaces and pedagogical applications.

1. Manual activity-the regrouping method.

Procedureln a number of investigations carried out in the Urals, it was found that when

ten-year-old school children performed an action, the speed of the movements of the hands depended upon the color sample in an envelope of which the surface was covered by a sheet of aluminum foil.On this surface, the teacher randomly placed ten small squares and ten rectangles made of cardboard.The children were then asked to separate the squares from the rectangles by finger-tip touch so that on the left side of the screen squares were placed in a column, and on the right side rectangles. The teacher records with a chronometer the speed at which this regrouping is accomplished. Both children and teachers were unaware of the fact that in the envelopes covered with an alununum sheet there were papers of contrasting colors.Psychologically, the children had the impression of sorting out the shapes with equal speed in the various trials.

Results

Results showed that it took 13 to 18 percent longer to regroup squares and rectangles when there was black paper under the aluminum sheet than when there was a yellow.(18)Other experiments showed that in daylight, red and violet slowed down the regrouping, while green and yellow quickened the movements.In incandescent electric light the speed of movements changed in the reverse order.(19)The same effects have been observed when the children have had to perform more complex tasks such as sorting out four kinds of geometrical shapes: squares, rectangles, lozenges and triangles.

Applications

In infant schools, these exercises might be presented as games and win develop the swiftness and the preciseness of the movements of the children. For typewriting. Experiments, in daylight, with one of our subjects, showed that a screened yellow paper increased switness and preciseness of typewriting while a black paper slowed it down.For the response to a sound signal. From experiments we carried on with a chronoscope, it appears that this speed greatly depended upon the color of the paper which was under an aluminum screen lying at the subject's forearm.(20)

Writing or Reading Braille Characters.

We asked a blind subject to punch words on blue, green, yellow, orange, red, black, or white sheets of paper. In all, he punched

twelve lines of randomly chosen words on 145 different sheets of 15 x 10 cm Canson papers randomly presented to him. The punching speed was recorded.These texts were randomly given to three other blind subjects to be read. When the trials were completed, the colors of the sheets, placed in a pile by the subjects, were noted side by side with the different speeds.The Braille writing experiments were carried out in daylight, but the Braille reading experiments were carried on in incandescent electric light only.

Results

Braille writing slowed down on orange-red and blue-violet papers and quickened on green and vellow sheets (in daylight).Braille reading was the quickest on a red paper, then on a blue one, and the slowest on a yellow paper (in electric light).Other activities for blind rehabilitation would be made easier thanks to the colored surface effects. For instance, the modelage speed is in relationship to the colors used.(21)

Mental Activity

The method of retinal effects

In a number of investigations carried out in the Urals in 1970, non-visible colored surfaces were found to act, not only on the skin, but also on the eye.

ProcedureTwo small sheets of colored paper, red or green, were introduced to a large number of subjects. They were place under an opaque screen consisting of a square sheet of lead, or of black rubber.The subject gazed at the center of the dark square, unaware that there was a colored paper below. Then the dark screen and the colored paper were removed and the subject was asked to stare at a sheet of white paper lying on the table.

Results

Consecutive vivid retinal images of very light square spots appeared on this sheet.The experiments showed that the duration of this effect depended on what.colored surfaces had previously been under the dark

screen.In full daylight, the retinal images lasted much longer if there had been a sheet of red paper under the screen rather than a green one. The duration of the effect changed exactly in accordance with the dermo-optical circle.(22)(Note: In the second half of 1970, experiments carried out with school children showed that non-visible colors acting on the retina led to a change in the children's mental activity)

The " Counting " Method

ProcedureThe subject, silently, counts various geometrical shapes. These squares and rectangles, are mixed together on the surface of the aluminum screen, under which there is a paper of one color or another. The subject holds his hands behind his back, counting by eye.

The Arithmetical Operations Method

The procedure is the same, but the subject has to calculate mentally the results of an operation indicated on a card lying on the aluminum screen: addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.these experiments, in which several hundred pupils of Sverdlovsk School participated, were carried on under double-blind conditions with the envelopes being presented at random to the subjects.(23)

Results

It appeared that the tempo of the pupil's mental activity changed according to which colored paper lay beneath the metal screen. It accelerated in the direction of red, orange to green and slowed down from green to blue and violet. In the evening under incandescent light the opposite occured.The pedagogical applications of these results are obvious, particularly for pupils having school difficulties: lack of attention, of interest, lack of understanding arithmetic, etc.(24)

The Detection of the Degree of Fatigue or Effect on Emotional States

The Thermoscopic Method

Unlike the other methods, the thermoscopic method from Dr. A. S. Novomeysky allows one to register and measure changes in the infrared radiation emitted by the hand m response to the infrared radiation emitted by the colored surfaces.ProcedureA system of thermocouples and a mirror galvanometer are used as the palm is held over one or other stimulus.(25)The stimuli were green or red cones, their outside being covered by an opaque cardboard envelope.The experiments were carried out in a random order, and during them the subject was in an isolated light-proof compartment and his hand projected outside through a special opening with a sleeve in the compartment partition.The experimenter and thermoscope were outside of the cabin.

Results

From a great many experiments carried on in various Sverlovsk universities, it appears that the response of the hand to a green stimulus has been stronger than to a red one, the subjects being in darkness during the experinents.The same effects appeared when the inner colored cavity of the cones was screened by an aluminum foil of 14 microns. When three layers of aluminum foil of a total thickness of 42 microns were used, the difference of the reactions of the hand to red and green stimuli increases.(26)

Application

It has been observed that the intensity of infrared radiation of the palm, as a response to non-visible color stimuli, was different in the evening than in daytime. This was true if students were in an emotional state, for instance, just following an examination. They reacted to colors in the reverse order as in the daytime or during the period when there were no examinations.(27)Dr. Novomeysky termed these reactions as " paradoxical ". He predicted that thermoscopy might become a method of registering the degree of fatigue of an individual.In carrying on our subjective method, we also observed these paradoxical reactions often arose as a result of fatigue. During the numerous tests we carried on with students, they rose during the examination period.(28)

Ecological Applications

We have considered the influence of non-visible colors on sensory, motor, and mental activity. We might point out that problems of the ecological expediency of color in architecture and decoration seem related to applications of dermo-optical methods.

Experiments at the " Centre d'Eclairagisme "

Since 1969 the experiments we carried out in the "Centre d'Eclairagisme " continue to confirm the relationship of derm-optical research to ecology.(29) These studies were conducted under the direction of Mr. M. Deribere who was recently succeeded by Mr. Lambert.

ProcedureA blind subject was placed in the center of a room in which the colors of the walls could be changed by the use of a special electric installation.

Results

Forty subjects were tested, and it was found that muscular and subjective reactions changed in accordance with:the colors of the walls under fluorescent lighting of about 1000 lux.For instance, when the walls became red, the subjects experienced disagreeable feelings. It seemed to them that the room became narrow. Even a subject, blind from birth, experienced feelings of stuffiness.But when the walls were white, they felt that the room was higher and more pleasant. When they became blue, they experienced an impression of coldness.These subjective feelings are analogous to those of architects or decorators who were admitted to this experimental room to study possible effects of various colors and lighting on different kinds of materials.

Comment

These experiments showed that the influence of non-visible colored surfaces can affect behavior in the blind as well as in subjects with normal eyesight.Dr. Harry Wohlfart, Professor of Art, University of Alberta at Edmonton, discovered this to be the case in the course of his fascinating research that measured " the impact of selected colors on the behavior of severely handicapped children ".(30) Dr. H.

Wohlfarth observed that they lead the same effect on children with normal sight as on blind children. Dr. Alexander G. Schauss of the American Institute for Biosocial Research, Inc., in Tacoma, Wasliington, noted analogous results in experiments oncolors with a color-blind subject.(31)

Applications: Some Examples

Thus dermo-optical research might be carried out further in the direction of many possible ecological applications of which some, examples will be given below.

Exams

Rooms in which examinations are held in schools and universities should be painted in restful colors, namely dark red or blue under electric light, green or yellow for use in daylight. (Beneath plywood panels).

Bedrooms

In relative darkness: light blue, golden yellow, and especially bright green produces an irritating effect on the organism. These colors should not be used in bedrooms, for they tend to influence the reactions to an even greater extent in the absence of visual perception.Ideally, the walls of bedrooms should be painted purple, red, orange, or dark blue, for these colors have a weak imact on the dermo-optical receptors in darkness.If the walls of a bedroom are of a color unpleasant in daylight, they should be covered with plywood. Draperieg, carpets and bed covers should be also in colors that are restful in darkness.

Truck lnteriors

The color of materials used in the driving compartment of trucks is of particular importance, given the small space involved that reinforces dermo-optical effects on the organism and hence upon the reflexes.A truck's driving compartment should therefore be covered with a thin metallic layer of darkish gray, under which there is a thick green or yellow paper for daytime driving. For night driving, the under paper should be red, violet, or dark blue.

The driver will be in a neutral environment while the hidden underlayer of color effects his muscular and mental reactions, rendering them faster and more efficient.In order to correct, insofar as possible, the influence of variations in lighting cushions, seat-covers and carpeting in dark blue or red should be placed on the seat at the end of the day, if the truck is driven in daytime.

Anxiety Disorders

There are two possibilities:When individuals are in an excited or manic state, relaxing colors are certainly advisable.For individuals in a depression, it is advisable to have them spend part of the day in rooms with red or orange hidden beneath plywood panels. The patient's psychic activity will thus be stimulated and the general vitality increased under the influence of the invisible radiation of surfaces which are not visually perceived.

Comment

By disguising the color of walls by covering them with an opaque panel, all interference by association of ideas and linguistic usage to such and such a color is eliminated.Red tends, as we know, to excite, green calms, etc.(32)All confusion between the physiological effects of visible colors and the associations that an observer makes with various colors should be avoided. Such associations can result, according to Dr. Peter K. Kaiser, "in cognitive events which trigger the physiological event".(33)

Visible Colored Surfaces

General rules based on dermo-optical sensitivity research.In choosing colors, one has only to refer to the dermo-chromatic circle (Fig. 1 and 2), while taking the lighting into account.In daylight, therefore, the following colors are recommended for use in schools, offices, etc.: yellow, green, and light blue.Under electric light, red, dark blue or violet are preferred.A precaution should be taken before papering a room or recovering a work table, namely, to remove the previous surface color(s). Otherwise, its dermo-optical effect will continue to effect the individual's behavior. It should be recalled that long infrared

radiation affects the dermo-optical sensitivity, having the ability to penetrate opaque screens.(26)The thickness of the colored surface must be considered, for the thicker it is the greater the effect it produces.Room temperature is another important factor affecting dermo-optical sensitivity. Experiments show that if the room temperature is similar to skin temperature (hand temperature approximately between 26 and 30 degrees centigrade) there are no dermo-optical reactions. In this case, only visual effects are noted.

Some possible applications

As we are often asked questions as to which visible colors should be used, so that the dermo-optical effects and the visual effects are not in contradiction, we will give a few examples selected, in part, by Dr. Novomeysky, as possible solutions in harmonizing these various effects when any discord arises between them.

1.When light varies during daytime.

In schools or workshops with colored walls tending to favor activity in daylight such as, green, yellow and light blue, artificial light (full - spectrum) simulating daylight can be used in the evening. In a one-room apartment, which is both a living room and bedroom, the walls should be dark-blue which favors, sound sleep. In the daytime, the effect can be mitigated by placing light colored cushions and objects favorable to mental activity.Inversely, if the room is painted or papered in crude green or light blue, at night dark bed covers can be used, a dark rug can be placed beneath the bed and a dark blue or dark red folding screen placed nearby. Cushions in these same colors may be scattered about.

2. When the colors of the environment are the same as that of the work tables and various materials being worked on.

This principle is especially applicable to clothing factories. It is very difficult for employees of a shop to work in rooms with light blue, green or yellow walls if the surfaces on which they are working are the same color. The eye would become rapidly fatigued, for example, looking at yellow garments in a shop decorated in the same color.In such a case, it would be advisable to place an opaque plywood

covering tables.Thus, when a worker is manipulating material, say of a yellow hue on a yellow surface covered by a smooth plywood, his or her activity is greatly facilitated because the visible color reinforcement effect is eliminated.

3. When the colors of the environment tend to change.

In the industrial environment, where there is a great deal of dust and materials soil the floor and work-benches, such as in cement plants or in metallurgical and chemical industries and workshops, colored surfaces rapidly turn brown or dark gray. This is often unavoidable, for even if they were covered with a transparent plastic or glass sheet, they would tend to become soiled just the same.It is therefore advisable to recover such surfaces with a material neutral and opaque to the eye with colored paper underneath, so that the invisible radiation favors increased activity.

4. The effects of colors are potentially harmful.

The greatest difficulty occurs when it is preferable to minimize the stimulation of a visible color which cannot be hidden beneath an opaque material.Dr. Novomeysky provides the example of a butcher shop in which reds, especially, are visually perceived. In daylight, ocular and dermo-optical effects of the color red are hard on the organism and have a deleterious effect on the human psyche.It is, therefore, advisable to modify the lighting in the locale as follows: During the daytime, the windows can be covered by curtains of either green, pale blue or yellow which intercepts the daylight and countermands the effects of red.In the evening, in locales being lit by electric light, the effects of red are neutralized.There are many other situations to be considered, but the most important thing to know is that colored surfaces act not only upon the eyes. Their invisible radiations act as well on the individual's total organism.

Conclusion

After pointing out the role of dermo-optical effects and their connection with visual effects, their importance in various forms of

artistic expression must be considered.The fugitive impressions of heat and cold, of roughness and smoothness, of heaviness and lightness, which we perceive when looking, for example, at a painting, are perhaps what provide it a certain " depth " that has been difficult to define.(34)These synthetic effects are far from imaginary, for they are the result of constant interactions between man and his environment which future research in physics and physiology need to explain.Whatever that may be, the results of experiments in dermo-optical sensitivity may be applied to avoiding mistakes in the choice of colors in the environment while improving living conditions.

AcknowledgementThe author wishes to thank the Parapsychology Foundation, Inc., of New York, N.Y., and Professor Novomeysky of the Sverdlovsk Pedagogical Institute in the U.S.S.R.

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