Classical color-matching error data have been compared in L, M, S cone response space to small and large color-difference data to reveal their agreements and divergences. The color-matching error data analyzed (with exception of the Brown data) and, implicitly, the Boynton-Kambe data were found to be similar, with a large ratio of S increment to L increment. Another group is formed by the Richter threshold data, small color-difference data and the CIE94 formula fitted to the latter. This group has an S/L increment ratio of approximately, one third that of the first. The Optical Society of America Uniform Color Scales and the Munsell set are on average comparable and intermediate in S/L increment ratio. Color-matching error data, threshold and small color-difference data as well as the formula fitted to it reveal a characteristic V shape of the cone response increment functions. It is explained as the overlay, of a crispening effect onto the basic global increment function revealed in Munsell or OSA-UCS data.