Colour perception and the use of video playback experiments in animal behaviour

Ethologists have employed video and cine playback
methods to study animal visual communication since
the late 1960s, but in the last few years such methods
have become extremely popular (reviewed in D’Eath, in
press). However, there are some serious limitations to the
use of video technology with animals that have not yet
been adequately addressed. The distribution and spectral
quality of light on a video screen and in the real world are
different. Video systems rely on fundamental features of
human visual processing to create a perceptual match
between the video image and nature. This match will, in
general, fail for nonhumans. In this paper we focus on
issues related to perception of colour. Other potential
shortcomings of video stimuli have been considered in
detail elsewhere. These include the absence of depth cues,
screen flicker, pixel size and visual acuity, the absence of
interactiveness (D’Eath, in press) and the issue of correct
viewing distance for the type of stimulus (Dawkins &
Woodington 1997).