Colors

Essay by Roderic976University, Bachelor'sA+, March 2005

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The Readability of Foreground/Background Colors with Font Color Combinations and Their Affect on Stress Levels when Performing Simple Tasks

When looking through the research literature on the psychology of color, it is apparent that it covers a wide variety of topics. Since the days of Freud, interest and methodological attention have been put into this multifaceted topic of science. The topics of investigation include: color reactions as functions of personality and psychopathology, physiological reactions to color, color preferences, color effects on emotions, color effects on behavior, and reactions to color concepts (Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994).

Our study seeks to explore how color can have an effect on a person's ability to perform simple tasks and if a resulting stress reaction from the color combinations is a factor. We feel that as students, it is important to be given color friendly materials when performing in and outside of the classroom.

According to a study by Radford (1997), the research supported the hypothesis that putting a transparent sheet of colored plastic over reading material helped children read more quickly. This was conducted by giving the children a choice of color transparency. Then several measures were taken of their reading speeds when they used their preferred color versus other colors. A significant amount of children were able to perform better using their preferred color versus another color or no color at all. So, there is a strong indication that the color of learning materials has an influence on academic performance, which often involves simple to complex tasks. In support of Radford's (1997) findings, in a study done by Bannister and Keegan (2003) it was determined that color combination preference may have an effect on the popularity of the material that a person is viewing. So, it is supported that finding something visually...