Validation of an Oddity Task for Use in the Diagnosis of Color Vision Anomalies

A procedure which measured a person's ability to discriminate the odd color from among three colors was compared against a clinical test commonly used in the diagnosis of color vision anomalies. Our purpose was to see if the oddity task, which monkeys can perform, could function as a substitute for the clinical diagnostic aid which can be administered only to humans. In every instance the diagnosis made from the results of the oddity task was identical to that made from the results of the clinical test. On the basis of these human data it was concluded that the results from a monkey's performance on the oddity task would be comparable to what would be obtained if the monkey were capable of taking the clinical test and, in turn, comparable to human data similarly obtained. The findings were discussed in relation to the use of animals as human surrogates. (Author)