Colorblindness at Loudoun Valley By Robert Fairfax and

Colorblindness at Loudoun Valley By: Robert Fairfax and Ben Kurzyna

What is Colorblindness? ● Defective or missing color cones in the eye ● Ones limited capability to see different colors depending on the affected cones ● Three cones with spectral ranges sensitive to green, red, and blue: resulting in deutan, protan, and tritan color deficiencies respectively

How do you become Colorblind? ● Present in approximately 7% of male population and only 0. 4% of females ● Genetic disease spread via the X chromosome, of which males have one and females have two ● A female must have both their X chromosomes carrying the disease to be affected, although they will still be a carrier of the disease with only one X chromosome

Types of Colorblindness: Green Deuteranopia/ Deuteranomaly: ● ● Missing/ Malfunctioning green cone Affects 5% of males Affects <1% of females Condition causes a person to not see green, all other colors affected as seen below

Types of Colorblindness: Red Protanopia/ Protanomaly: ● ● Missing/ Malfunctioning red cone Affects 2% of males Affects <1% of females Condition causes a person to not see red, all other colors affected as seen below

Types of Colorblindness: Blue Tritanopia/ Tritanomaly: ● ● Missing/ Malfunctioning blue cone Affects <1% of males Affects <1% of females Condition causes a person to not see blue, all other colors affected as seen below

Fun Facts ● Colorblind people often develop the ability to distinguish most colors and can sometimes have a heightened ability to differentiate colors and patterns of color ● Previous testing of people with Deuteranomaly (green weak) showed they were able to much more easily differentiate between fifteen shades of khaki than those with normal vision ● 99% of Colorblind people are not really color blind but color deficient

Fun Facts Continued ● “What color is this? ” is the most annoying question you can ask someone who is colorblind ● The terms Protan, Deutan, and Tritan are greek for first, second, third ● Dogs are not completely colorblind, but are a form of Deuteranopia (green blind)

The Test We Performed ● Col. Blindor Color Arrangement Test ● Arrange Swatches in Order of Similarity ● Tests for Confusion of Colors (C-Index)

Data We Collected ● 60 Tests of Students in B-Day Study Halls ● Independent Variables ○ Eye Color ○ Gender ● Dependent Variable o Colorblindness and Type

Analysis ● 20% of students tested were some sort of colorblind ● Colorblindness Type: o Protan: 8. 33% o Deutan: 5% o Tritan: 6. 67% ● Only 25% of Colorblind students were aware of their colorblindness

Analysis Continued ● Gender: o Males: 25% o Females: 14. 81% ● Eye Color: o Blue: 9. 09% o Brown: 17. 86% o Green: 28. 57%

Statistics ● One-Tailed T-Test or ANOVA ● Male-Female T-test C-Index P-value: 0. 24 o Not A Statistically Significant Difference o Expected to be Statistically Significant ● Eye Color 3 -Way ANOVA C-Index P-Value: 0. 21 o In this data, difference between eye colors is not statistically significant

Conclusions ● The data suggests that a greater proportion of Loudoun Valley students are Colorblind than the general public. ● While more males are colorblind, the difference in between male and female C -Indices is not statistically significant.

Conclusions Continued ● Neither our independent variables (gender or eye color) resulted in statistically significant differences between different categories. ● This problem occurred because of the rarity of Colorblind test subjects, which could only be resolved with a far larger pool of test subjects.

Questions?