Final answer:
The TED talk likely involved studying an animal's color perception, possibly a dog or a monkey, and involved experiments with filtered light to understand visual perception.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the TED talk discussed, the researcher was likely working with an animal such as a dog or a monkey to determine if they could learn to respond to only one color, even when a filtered light was presented. The mention of experiments that modify the perception of color and the use of filtered light suggests a connection to research into animal color perception and the neurology of visual perception. For instance, the Nobel Prize-winning work of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel on the visual system, which included studying animals like cats and monkeys, revealed much about how specific brain cells respond to visual stimuli. Furthermore, the discussion of animals seeing colors differently than humans, with some such as dogs being red-green color-blind due to having only two kinds of cone cells for blue and yellow, aligns with the kind of research the student is inquiring about.