The Dress [in relation to ASD]

[JuniperBug]

This dress. I'm sure you've heard of it by now and you're probably sick of hearing about it...but there is one more thing you should know, and it's actually relevant to ASD!

Is the dress black and blue or white and gold? Everyone sees it differently and, honestly, it doesn't much matter what you see (but I'll post a poll just for fun). What does matter is that people can perceive the same thing (ex.a picture of a dress) in different ways that aren't necessarily 'worse ways'.

Just like, as people with AS and ASD, our perception of the world is often physical different than others (brightness, pitch, volume, smell, taste, texture) and, sure, people can be kind accommodating but no one else 'really' knows what the same world is like through your eyes (ears, nose, etc.) .

I feel that this core issues in Autism acceptance: understanding that individuals literally experience things in ways that you are not able too...trusting that this is possible even if it seems unfathomable. It's a simple concept but so hard for many people to accept.

I think the dress really helped bring this issue into light. What do you think?

Here is the article that inspired this post:

#TheDress Reveals Something Pretty Profound About Autism - BuzzFeed News

Also if you only see one color set and want to see the other, here is the image enhanced in different ways.

 

[Harrison]

I see blue and black

(is there a prize )

 

[Tia Maria]

Wow, fascinating. I see white & gold. When I remove the light sources, then I can see the blue & black. But under any kind of normal lighting I see white & gold. I will be very interested in seeing the results of JuniperBug's poll.

 

[Tia Maria]

I see blue and black

(is there a prize )

Yes! One of your prizes will be that I will refrain from posting for at least several days minimum so you won't have to sit at the edge of your laptop waiting to see if you need to quickly delete anything or close down any threads!! A mod vacation break of sorts! Woohoo!

 

[Harrison]

Yes! One of your prizes will be that I will refrain from posting for at least several days minimum so you won't have to sit at the edge of your laptop waiting to see if you need to quickly delete anything or close down any threads!! A mod vacation break of sorts! Woohoo!

I only have to do that to trolls, but I am ever hopeful in my quest

 

[Spiller]

I see blue and black in this picture, but I'm aware that my perception of color changes with different light intensities.. thinking about it now, I've had disagreements on the color of some shades of blue and green cars; I see a green car and others see it as blue..

 

[royinpink]

Originally I saw white and gold, but after I read the explanation (in the NY Times), I could only see blue and black. When I opened this thread, I saw white and gold at first and watched it change before my eyes. Trippy.

I liked these ideas at the bottom of the article:

[referring to optical illusions] “Your interpretation depends on several factors, such as which part of the figure you attend to,” Dr. Toscano said. “Something similar is likely going on with the dress.”​

Another theory involves color perception. When cues about the ambient light are missing, people may perceive the same color in different ways.​

At first I wondered if your post had 'solved' the question by suggesting, for instance, that autistic people's tendency to see detail rather than whole gestalt inclined them to see one or the other.

 

[SameStars]

I see white and gold. Even with the enchanced picture, it just looks extremely shadowed to me.

 

[Tia Maria]

I wonder if there is a difference between how males & females see the color in the original picture? I think I read somewhere a while ago that men do not usually see as many colors as women. That men do not 'see' the nuances between the various shades of different colors. I'm not sure of the source of that though.

 

[Spiller]

I wonder if there is a difference between how males & females see the color in the original picture? I think I read somewhere a while ago that men do not usually see as many colors as women. That men do not 'see' the nuances between the various shades of different colors. I'm not sure of the source of that though.

I read an article years ago saying that 10% (I think) of the female population have a fourth cone, in addition to the red, green and blue cones in the retina responsible for color perception, enabling them to see shades of color that men can't.
I also wonder if they can see the color of magic.. any Terry Pratchett fans?

 

[Harrison]

I read an article years ago saying that 10% (I think) of the female population have a fourth cone, in addition to the red, green and blue cones in the retina responsible for color perception, enabling them to see shades of color that men can't.
I also wonder if they can see the color of magic.. any Terry Pratchett fans?

That's why they like '50 shades of grey' and we have no idea why

(Pratchett fan here )

 

[Progster]

Strange. I see light blue and gold.

 

[Vinca]

When I look at the dress, it looks as though it is white and gold but in poor lighting conditions. If i were mixing up paint colours to match the exact colour of the dress, I would mix up a pale grey/blue to represent the white, but I would still think of the colour as being white in poor light conditions.

It reminds me of when I look at my street at night, when it's dark and the streeet lamps are on. I know the houses have red bricks, so I still think of them as being red, but they no longer look red becasue of the change in light conditions.

(edit for grammar)

 

[DogwoodTree]

Guess I'm a weirdo...I see blue and gold.

 

[DogwoodTree]

but after I read the explanation (in the NY Times), I could only see blue and black. When I opened this thread, I saw white and gold at first and watched it change before my eyes. Trippy.

That article was helpful...especially once it got into the explanation of the "cues about the ambient light". If I work really, really hard at it, I can see the gold as being severely washed out black. But the only way I can perceive the blue could actually be white is if the lighting is coming through a blue-tinted window, or somehow otherwise is being lit by a more blue-ish light than the yellow-ish lighted background.

 

[Jaywalker]

I also initially (and disinterestedly) saw white and gold. After learning that it is an overexposed picture, I can now only see blue and black.

 

[clg114]

I see white and gold. My wife see's blue and black. I've been trying to convince her that she's wrong, but I'm not having much luck at that.

 

[Nitro]

I see blue and a light brown on the original unaltered pic

 

[Nitro]

Colors are a perception of shades and hues...there is nothing to say that we each see them as the same

I have a friend that used to call a truck I drove a brown one...it was a pale yellow to my eyes

 

[watersprite]

I see a light blue with some cold red in the mix - almost periwinkle, and raw sienna.