The afterimage of a succession of optical impressions will appear as the reverse image of the fixed color. This afterimage will therefore show the complementary color, and successive contrast can thus be used to determine this color. If, for example, we first observe blue rings on a red background, and then look at a white background, we will see a complementary after-image of the previously observed arrangement of colors, namely yellow rings on a greenish background.

—Color Systems in Art and Science, edited by Klaus Stromer, translated from the German by Randy Cassada, 1999.