Thanks, Stephen. I finally have a review of previous research with a real theoretical base to provide all of those undergrad researchers who want to test a hypothesis about the effects of color. I will leave it to the Canadian and British tipsters to test hypotheses related to colour.
Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected] ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 12:34 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Related to physiological psych On 27 Mar 2009 at 12:02, Paul C Bernhardt wrote: > The effect of color of a space on any performance variable has found > precious little space in the scholarly psychology literature, excepting > its use as 'cultural codes' for wayfinding and safety. Quoting Bell, > Greene, Fisher, and Baum (2001), "Popular articles abound, but there is > very little recent empirical research directed specifically at the > effectiveness of various manipulations of environmental color. We are > forced to join those who conclude that the literature addressing the > application of color is surprisingly limited (e.g., Read et al., 1999; > Sanders & McCormick, 1993)." That was then, this is now. A study was just published in _Science_ which finds colour effects on cognitive performance. And would _Science_ lie to you? ----------------------- Science 27 February 2009: Vol. 323. no. 5918, pp. 1226 - 1229 Blue or Red? Exploring the Effect of Color on Cognitive Task Performances Ravi Mehta and Rui (Juliet) Zhu* Existing research reports inconsistent findings with regard to the effect of color on cognitive task performances. Some research suggests that blue or green leads to better performances than red; other studies record the opposite. Current work reconciles this discrepancy. We demonstrate that red (versus blue) color induces primarily an avoidance (versus approach) motivation (study 1, n = 69) and that red enhances performance on a detail-oriented task, whereas blue enhances performance on a creative task (studies 2 and 3, n = 208 and 118). Further, we replicate these results in the domains of product design (study 4, n = 42) and persuasive message evaluation (study 5, n = 161) and show that these effects occur outside of individuals' consciousness (study 6, n = 68). We also provide process evidence suggesting that the activation of alternative motivations mediates the effect of color on cognitive task performances. ------------------ Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
