The Impact of Colour Perception on Cognitive Task Performance

Past research by Elliot and Maier (2007) has demonstrated that perception of a particular colour can actually affect performance on cognitive tasks. The present study sought to further investigate this possible relationship between colour and task performance using a similar concept and a modified design. Thirty-two participants were randomly assigned to complete a cognitive task by attempting a series of anagrams which had either easy or difficult solutions, and were printed in either red ink or green ink. The results showed that participants in the easy condition performed significantly better than those in the hard condition, as expected. However, the results also showed that there was no significant difference in performance between participants in the green ink condition and those in the red ink condition, which does not support previous findings. Possible limitations of the chosen experimental design and implications of potential future research in a variety of fields are also discussed