Definition
A ganzfeld (“whole field” in German) is an absolutely homogeneous region of space that covers an observer’s entire visual field. It can be of any single uniform wavelength and intensity.
History
The ganzfeld was first introduced in 1930 [1], by German Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Metzger (1899–1979). Metzger was interested in elementary visual phenomena produced by impoverished visual conditions. The ganzfeld contains no luminance border, luminance ramp, or texture. The light reaching the eye is absolutely equal from all possible directions. Such conditions, called whiteout, can occur naturally during a snowstorm or in an airplane flying through clouds.
Perceptual Experience in the Ganzfeld
The typical visual phenomenology, for a person of normal sight, includes the emergence of “Eigengrau” [2], a uniform gray fog of indeterminate depth. This percept occurs regardless of the physical intensity and wavelength of the ganzfeld. Any color in a ganzfeld will eventually fade to...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Metzger, W.: Optische Untersuchungen am Ganzfeld. Psychol. Forsch. 13, 6–29 (1930)
Knau, H., Spillmann, L.: Failure of brightness and color constancy under prolonged Ganzfeld stimulation. SPIE Proc. 2657(04), 19–29 (1996)
Knau, H.: Thresholds for detecting slowly changing Ganzfeld luminances. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 17, 1382–1387 (2000)
Schubert, J., Gilchrist, A.L.: Relative luminance is not derived from absolute luminance. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 33(Suppl.), 1258 (1992)
Gur, M.: Color and brightness fade-out in the ganzfeld is wavelength dependent. Vision Res. 29(10), 1335–1341 (1989)
Bolanowski, S.J., Doty, R.W.: Perceptual blankout of monocular homogeneous fields (Ganzfelder) is prevented with binocular viewing. Vision Res. 27, 967–982 (1987)
Gur, M.: Perceptual fade-out occurs in the binocularly viewed Ganzfeld. Perception 20(5), 645–654 (1991)
McGuinness, D., Lewis, I.: Sex differences in visual persistence: experiments on the Ganzfeld and afterimages. Perception 5(3), 295–301 (1976)
Cohen, W., Cadwallader, T.C.: Cessation of visual experience under prolonged uniform visual stimulation. Am. Psychol. 13, 410 (1958)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Zdravković, S. (2015). Ganzfeld. In: Luo, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_347-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_347-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics