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Abstract

Empirical studies have shown that the functional aspects of colour should be emphasized to help facilitate learning, rather than focusing on the aesthetics of colour (Gaines & Curry, 2011). This is not limited to the walls of the class room but also includes the influence of colour of paper to aid in learning. Researchers and educators are interested in improving the methods of learning that might help in students’ better understanding of subjects, and improvement of memory retention.

98 students from James Cook University participated in a study using various colour papers: pink, green, and white. The focus of this study is to examine the impact of colour on perception. The mean number of correct answers recorded by each condition group was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the various colour paper on learning. The review of the findings suggests that students who did the test on green paper performed slightly better than the students with white or pink paper. Thus, it is concluded that green is the more effective colour paper for learning.

Keywords: learning, colour, performance

Effect of Colour on Perception and Psychological Functioning

Colour plays a fundamental role in human perception (Mehta & Zhu, 2007). Learned associations help derive the meaning of colours such as the colour red with danger, and allows the communication of specific information that suggest a biological inclination response to certain colours (Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman & Meinhardt, 2007).

It is presumed that various colours have different associations, and psychological responses consistent with those associations may be stimulated by looking at those colours. Previous studies have suggested that specific colours can invoke different emotions, elicit various responses, and improve students’ academic performances (Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman & Meinhardt, 2007).

White and off-white environments were reported by Gaines and Curry (2011) to be less productive. In addition, Mehta and Zhu (2007) claimed that performance on detailed-oriented and creative tasks were affected by the colours red and blue, with high implications for test preparation and testing formats. While pink has a tranquilizing effect (Morton, 1998) and may suppress aggressive behaviour in prisoners (Walker, 1991), the colour blue enhances creativity.

Though commonly stated as fact in various scientific literature that short wavelength colours are calming, and long wavelength colours are arousing, the actual data does not support the claims (Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman & Meinhardt, 2007). However, several studies have shown that students scored higher on blue than red paper (Sinclair, Soldat & Mark, 1998). These researchers suggested that the colour red stimulates a processing strategy that conserves cognitive resources which induces positive affect. On the other hand, they suggested that the colour blue stimulates detail-oriented processing that might be more effective when solving difficult problems, inducing negative affect. In contrast to these findings, Skinner (2004) reported that students scored higher marks on exams printed on red than on blue paper, with the highest scores achieved on white paper.

Several limitations might be responsible to explain the difference in results between these two findings. Firstly, many studies failed to follow basic experimental procedures such as experimenter blindness to hypothesis. Secondly, there were many uncontrolled manipulations e.g., presenting colour on a class wall for 4 days. Lastly, even though other colour attributes such as hue, lightness, and chroma can influence psychological functioning, limited existing research has examined their effects (Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman & Meinhardt, 2007).

The focus of this study was to investigate whether colour has an impact on perception in student performance. Students were presented ten multiple-choice questions (MCQs) based on Piaget's theory on cognitive development. Our hypothesis in this experiment is that the cooler colour (green) group will perform better than other condition groups.

Method

Participants

98 James Cook University psychology undergraduates (37 male, 61 female) participated in this study. The age range of participants was from 17 – 47 years old (refer to Table 1 for demographics). They were randomly assigned to pink, green or white coloured MCQ question sheets during the first week of tutorials.

Table 1

Demographics of participants

Design

The students were allowed ten minutes to complete ten MCQs based on Piaget's theory on cognitive development. The dependent variable (DV) was the number of correct answers ranging from one to ten. The independent variable (IV) was the colour of paper: white, green and pink.

Materials

The test comprised of seven pages with the first two pages being an informed consent form and demographic information for students to indicate their gender and age. The pages were printed on white, green and pink paper to examine the effects of a colour on perception.

Procedure

Participants were tested in separate tutorial groups with the experimenter present in the room. They were given instructions regarding the task and were informed that there are no repercussions for their performance. Participants were given five choices ranging from (a) to (e) for each question and were instructed to note down their answers in the available space beside the five choices. Each participant completed their task within the stipulated timing. Once completed, they had to switch papers with the person beside them check their answers.

Results

The results of the experiment were collated and expressed in a table as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Performance of students indicated by the mean number of correct answers obtained across the condition groups.

Mean score refers to the average number of correct answers in the condition group. Therefore, a higher mean score would mean that a larger number of the students in the group scored a higher number of correct answers. As shown in Figure 1, participants in the green condition group have a higher mean score of 7.06, indicating that they performed slightly better than participants in the pink condition and white condition group with mean scores of 6.38 and 6.56 respectively. Thus, suggesting that the green paper is most effective in impacting student's performance than the pink and white paper.

The standard deviation of the number of correct answers obtained by each condition group is as follows: (Pink= 2.348, Green= 2.108, White= 2.256). However, the difference in standard deviation is inconclusive because the number of participants in each condition group was inconsistent.

Discussion

The hypothesis that the green condition group will perform better than the other two condition groups has been supported by the findings in this experiment. The results concluded with participants that had the green paper obtained the highest mean test score of 7.06.

One of the limitations in this experiment would be the difference in brightness of colour. Having the degree of brightness of colour measured against a standard scale would allow the experimenter to note the effect and thus giving a more accurate representation if warmer pastel colours (pink) also influences learning.

Moreover, participants should be conditioned properly to avoid any discrepancies in data collection. A student who had been in a cool-coloured classroom before participating in this study and given a green test paper may affect the accuracy of the findings compared to a student who had been in a cool-coloured classroom and was given the white test paper. Therefore, participants should be assimilated in the same class for a standard period of time before sitting for the test.

Another limitation would be the large difference in number of male and female students assigned to each condition group as this may not be representative of the population. For the green and pink groups, the ratio of males to females is about 1: 2.2 and 1: 2.6 respectively, while the white group has a ratio of 1: 1.6. Therefore, the three condition groups should have the same ratio of males to females.

Furthermore, Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman and Meinhardt (2007) have found that mood is experienced differently between the genders in different coloured environments. This can be observed in the green condition group where nine correct answers were mostly achieved by male students. Females experienced emotions such as depression, confusion, and anger in spaces with colours of white, gray, and beige. Males experienced negative emotions in green, blue, purple, red, yellow, and orange spaces (Kwallek, Lewis, Lin-Hsiao & Woodson, 1996).

References Elliot, A., Maier, M., Moller, A., Friedman, R., & Meinhardt, J. (2007). Colour and psychological functioning: The effect of red on performance attainment. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: General, 136(1), 154-168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.136.1.154 Gaines, K. S., & Curry, Z. D. (2011). The inclusive classroom: The effects of colour on learning and behavior. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 29(1), 46-57. Available at http://www.natefacs.org/JFCSE/v29no1/v29no1Gaines.pdfA Kwallek, N., Lewis, C., Lin-Hsiao, J., & Woodson, H. (1996). Effects of nine monochromatic office interior colors on clerical tasks and worker mood. Color Research & Application, 21(6), 448-458. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1520-6378(199612)21:6<448::aid-col7>3.0.co;2-w Mehta, R., & Zhu, R. (2009). Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances. Science, 323(5918), 1226-1229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1169144 Morton, J. (1998). Color voodoo for the office. Retrieved from Colorcom.com. Sinclair, R., Soldat, A., & Mark, M. (1998). Affective Cues and Processing Strategy: Color-Coded Examination Forms Influence Performance. Teaching Of Psychology, 25(2), 130-132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top2502_14 Skinner, N. F. (2004). Differential test performance from differently colored paper: White paper works best. Teaching of Psychology, 31, 111–113. Walker, M. (1991). The Power of Color. New York: Avery Publishing Group.

Mean number of correct answers