Color in the environment and how persons perceive can greatly affect their productivity and mood. Each person has a different abilities of being able to screen out various stimulus that is around them. Low screeners have a difficult time ignoring overpowering stimulus in their environment while high screeners need to perceive a great amount of stimulus to work to the best of their ability. Mood is affected by color, when a person is in a red room to long they can become agitated and confused. A person in a blue room is more relaxed. This study looks at the affects three different color schemes on college students ability to perform well on a test.

The Affect of Color on Low and High Screeners

The way we perceive color can affect our emotions and productivity in many different ways. Certain colors can make us excited or stimulate while other colors can leave us feeling helpless or overwhelmed (e.g., Murray & Deabler, 1957). Violet can leave individuals feeling sad or fatigued while red can induce anger and tension (e.g., Levy, 1984). What if the col

High screeners are not affected by the arousingness of the color red so they are able to perform their duties to the best of their abilities (Kwalleck et al., 1997)). Low screeners are very distracted by the incoming stimulus to a point were their performance deteriorates. In contrast, the blue green office is very relaxing so that the high screeners are not getting enough arousal to reach their optimal level of performance. Low screeners are more near to their optimal level of performance in the relaxing blue-green room. Results for the white room were not listed for high or low screeners in performance. Performance was not effected by any of the color schemes until individual screening abilities were taken into account.

The goals of this study are to find out what testing conditions are best for low screeners and high screeners. The hypothesis for this study is that low screeners will have higher test scores in the blue room then the high screeners. In the white control room and the red room the high screeners will have higher test scores because they need more stimulation in their environment for optimal performance. Low screeners need less stimulation to reach their optimal performance levels. I believe that all participants will have less confusion and depression in the blue room.

Kwalleck et al. (1997) believed that one explanation to this is the Yerkes Dodson principle. This principle proposes that arousal and performance go up together until a point. After reaching the optimal level of arousal, any increase in arousal will lead to performance decreasing. Generally more cognitively complex task require less arousal to reach an optimal performance (Kwalleck et al., 1997).

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Procedure Subjects, Yerkes Dodson, Lewis Sales, Murray Deabler, Clerical Test, Screening Questionnaire, Stone English, Participants Participants, Abstract Color, Questionnaire Kwalleck, low screeners, et al, et al 1997, al 1997, kwalleck et al, kwalleck et, screeners test, test scores, low screeners screeners, color scheme, poms questionnaire, kwalleck woodson, effects color, woodson lewis sales, kwalleck woodson lewis,
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