Effects of Environmental Color on Two Psychomotor Tasks

Abstract

A popular viewpoint holds that various hues will have differential effects on activation level and psychomotor performance. To test the performance hypothesis 125 Ss performed two psychomotor tasks (pursuit rotor and the Crawford Small Parts Dexterity Task) in one of five booths painted red, green, blue, yellow, or gray. Colors were matched for brightness and saturation and ambient light level was equated for each booth. Ss also gave preference rankings of the five colors. Results show high agreement in preference rankings of the colors ( p < .001); there were no significant differences in performance, however, between groups on any task.