Color discrimination in action: High-throughput measurement in immersive VR

Abstract

Precise measurement of color discrimination across color space is limited by the time and effort required to collect large psychophysical datasets. We investigated whether immersive virtual reality (VR) can support high-throughput measurement of color discrimination without compromising data quality. A standard 4-alternative forced-choice odd-one-out task was embedded in an interactive VR environment inspired by the rhythm game BeatSaber, in which participants indicated the location of a chromatic target by slicing approaching cubes. Stimuli were presented on a color-calibrated VR headset, and chromaticities were specified in DKL space. Discrimination thresholds were measured for hue and chroma shifts around two reference colors. Participants sustained response rates of approximately one trial per second while maintaining stable performance. Thresholds replicated established asymmetries in color discrimination: hue thresholds were lower than chroma thresholds, and the hue-chroma ratio differed between color quadrants. A control experiment comparing VR-based slicing responses with matched keyboard responses revealed comparable psychometric fits and threshold estimates, indicating that motor engagement did not degrade measurement precision. Questionnaire measures further showed significantly higher intrinsic motivation, enjoyment, and stimulation in the immersive condition relative to a classic static psychophysical task, without increases in reported pressure or discomfort. These results demonstrate that calibrated immersive VR can yield reliable color discrimination measurements at substantially increased throughput, providing a scalable approach for mapping the metric structure of color space.