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What kinds of rooms are your favorite spots for studying? We are going to guess that they are probably not painted bright red or yellow. But maybe they should be. Imagine. You are suddenly asked to prepare for an exam. You have two rooms to choose from. One is a pale blue, and the other is a bright red. Which one do you settle into for study? Is one going to get your brain fired up for learning, or let you relax into the best state of concentration?
According to researchers at Curtin University in Australia, it might be best to camp out in the bright red room when you are looking to store information. It might sound strange, since we often think of pale rooms — soft blues or light greens — are relaxing. And they seem to be: The Curtin University study showed that pale colors made participants feel more relaxed and calm, while bright colors increased heart rate. But calming and relaxing, it turns out, may not always be the best environment for deep concentration or knowledge gaining. Reading comprehension was much better in the bright rooms than in the pale rooms. Although participants reported that they generally preferred the pale rooms to study in as an approach to relax into work, the researchers saw just the opposite — that the bright-colored rooms seemed to lead to greater concentration.
While this might seem only surprising, the findings get into a rather controversial (有争议的) area of psychological study. The Yerkes-Dodson Law says that a little bit of stress is good for achieving best performance, while too much stress negatively affects it. The higher heart rate and the reports of the bright colors creating a heavy atmosphere might just suggest that a little stress was good for the brain.
