Perceived versus Actual Value of Color-Coding

Abstract

Color-coding has become a widely-used method of information input coding. Unfortunately, little is known regarding general statements concerning under what conditions color-coding will facilitate performance. For this reason, a decision is often made on the basis of judgment if empirical data is not available.The present study is designed to examine performance in a particular short-term memory task and to assess the actual value of color-coding in the task. This actual value is then compared to the participants' judgments of the value of color-coding in that task. The task required the subject to keep track of the current state of each of several variables. One group used a color-coding system while a second group did not. The results showed performance to be significantly better without color-coding; however, all subjects from each group in a post-test interview that they felt that color-coding would be beneficial. The implication is that humans may have rather poor insight regarding the facilitating effects of co10r-coding. INTRODUCTIONIn recent decades engineers have created complex machines that reqUire constant monitoring by human operators. Far too often chaos results from operators being unable to keep track of all the information revealed on display systems. Design engineers of the past relied on their common sense to determine how much information should be monitored by an operator and how the information should be presented. Such a method is no longer adequate. It is necessary to determine how much information an operator can handle as well as the most efficient method of presentation. One scheme used to present information is to color-code the data. Unfortunately, the decision to use color-coding is often made in an unscientific manner with the idea that "it couldn't hurt". The purpose of this paper is to compare the actual and perceived value of co10r-coding in a task involving short-term memory.There are many examples of color-coding being used to aid human operators. The electronics industry color-codes many parts including wires, resistors, and lights. Libraries color code many of their reference material. Offices often color code the forms they deal with and pharmacies color code drugs.An example of a system which would be more closely related to the experiment discussed in this paper 227 would be pipe line monitoring and control. Modern pipe lines depend on remote control of pump stations. Quite often all needed information is automatically relayed from unmanned stations to one that is manned several miles away. Usually, there are several bits of information being relayed from each station at once to a single display board. In some cases the information from one station is distinguished from the information from another station through the use of color-codes. LITERATURE BACKGROUNDAmong the early work done concerning the effect of the number of variables on short-term memory used tape recordings with word pairs. This method showed that short-term retention is a function of average storag...