Color, arousal, and performance—A comparison of three experiments

Abstract

Three studies of the psychological and physiological effects on people of colored room interiors are described. Experiment 1 compared a colorful and a gray room, whereas in experiments 2 and 3 red and blue rooms were compared. The results indicate that the color of an interior space will have effects on many different levels. The perception of the room itself was affected, and the colors also had an impact on the emotions and physiology of those who stayed in the rooms. Strong, especially red, colors and patterns put the brain into a more excited state, sometimes to such an extent as to cause a paradoxical slowing of the heart rate. Introvert persons, as well as those already in a negative mood, became more affected than others, which caused severe changes in their performance. The series of experiments described here were among the first to be carried out in full-scale rooms painted or otherwise decorated in various colors. One practical implication is that a moderate use of good color design will serve to improve the overall mood and well-being of people. In future research more emphasis should be placed on color, as just one component in the highly complex real-life situations.

Effects of Colour, Area, and Height on Space Perception

“…The workspace with neutral colours tended to perceive more spaciousness, openness, simplicity, and order than other colour schemes. These results support the previous study of Küller et al (2009) that the neutral workspace obtained simplicity effect. The findings also support the studies that room with the achromatic scheme and the white workspace were perceived more harmonious (Kwallek, 1996;Öztürk et al, 2012).…”

“…For instance, the influence of colour on perceived spaciousness was reported smaller effect when the amount of light is controlled (Stamp, 2011). There was no difference between colourful and gray workspace in term of enclosedness (Küller et al, 2009). The floor lightness has no significant effect on perceived height and that the total brightness of the room is not the critical factor influencing the perceived height (Oberfeld & Hecht, 2010).…”

“…While a high ceiling can be made to seem lower by a dark blue and black (Pile, 1997). The multicolour room was found to have a very high complexity and non-unity, whereas the neutral room obtained an opposite effect (Küller et al, 2009). The achromatic scheme was perceived more harmonious, and the chromatic scheme was indicated a more complex (Öztürk, Yılmaze & Ural, 2012).…”

Neural Correlates of Mobile EEG and the Built Environment

“…Other studies show that we can use mobile EEG such as; Emotiv device in architecture and urban design for studying real environment, also this study shows some evidences to use EEG in acoustic researches (Roe, Aspinall, Mavros, & Coyne, 2013). Furthermore, another study worked on EEG signals for evaluating the arousal and performance toward the interior color (Rikard Küller, Mikellides, & Janssens, 2009). …”

A research on the effect of classroom wall colours on student’s attention

“…As a matter of fact, the role of the physical environment and also the interior colour of a classroom in regards to helping students' concentrate, has become the subject of the research. In related literature, previous studies which focused on the impact of interior colour have emphasized the relationship between interior space colour and the attention of users (Kwallek, 1996;Küller, 2009;Baytin, 2005). These studies mostly were carried out using adult subjects, not children.…”