Dataset for: Influence of colour vision on attention to, and impression of, complex aesthetic images

Humans exhibit colour vision variations due to genetic polymorphisms, with
trichromacy being the most common, while some people are classified as
dichromats. Whether genetic differences in colour vision affect the way of
viewing complex images remains unknown. Here, we investigated how people
with different colour vision focused their gaze on aesthetic paintings by
eye-tracking while freely viewing digital rendering of paintings and
assessed individual impressions through a decomposition analysis of
adjective ratings for the images. Gaze concentrated areas among
trichromats were more highly correlated than those among dichromats.
However, compared to the brief dichromatic experience with the simulated
images, there was little effect of innate colour vision differences on
impressions. These results indicate that chromatic information is
instructive as a cue for guiding attention, whereas the impression of each
person is generated according to their own sensory experience and
normalised through one’s own colour space.