Colour Your Learning: How Do Colours Affect How We Learn?
Colour is an integral component of our daily lives, and they evoke different moods and emotions in us. How do the colours we see when studying affect how we learn?
Green : Calm and Concentration
Green is a low wavelength colour that promotes calmness, and improves efficiency and focus. It is a good colour to have around during prolonged studying sessions, keeping long-term concentration and clarity. Green also relaxes our eyes, hence the popular advice for students to look at trees and plants after long periods of studying.
Orange: Mood Lifter
Orange promotes comfort and improves neural functioning as it is rich and energetic. It is often seen as a mood lifter, to boost energy. However, if you are prone to overstimulation, you may consider avoiding this colour for long studying hours.
Blue: Productivity
Blue is a colour that promotes high levels of thought and can be used when doing highly intellectual work such as research or programming. You may balance this cool colour with warmer colours like orange or yellow, to prevent detachment and coldness from your work.
Red : Creativity
Red encourages creativity, but is often associated with high stress, increased blood pressure and anxiety.
Yellow : Memory
Not only does yellow promote positivity, but specifically for memorising text or words, it stands out. Yellow is a stimulating colour that grabs attention and may help in memorising information.
Your environment
You may make use of these different colours to optimise studying different subjects, for different amounts of time. Here are some suggestions on how:
Use different coloured highlighters, such as orange for a subject you don’t enjoy and blue for a content-heavy topic.
Using different coloured pens
Decorating your workspace according to your preference
Wearing different coloured clothes to study
Sources:
https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/how-do-colors-influence-learning
https://www.ucas.com/connect/blogs/how-your-surroundings-affect-way-you-study
https://choosemarker.com/wht-color-highlighter-use-for-studying/
By: Shana Lam