Individual differences in simultaneous color constancy are related to working memory

Few studies have investigated the possible role of higher-level cognitive mechanisms in color constancy. Following-up on previous work with successive color constancy (Allen, Beilock, & Shevell, J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. 37, 1014, 2011), the current study examined the relation between simultaneous color constancy and working memory – the ability to maintain a desired representation while suppressing irrelevant information. Higher working-memory was associated with poorer simultaneous color constancy for a chromatically complex stimulus, but was not associated with simultaneous color constancy for a chromatically simple stimulus. Ways in which the executive attention mechanism of working memory may play a role in color constancy when observers are not required to maintain a representation of a color in memory (as was the case here) are discussed. This finding supports a role for higher-level cognitive mechanisms in color constancy, and is the first to demonstrate a relation between simultaneous color constancy and a complex cognitive ability.