Review Article The Influence of Colour on Memory

Performance: A Review
Mariam Adawiah Dzulkifli, Muhammad Faiz Mustafar
Submitted: 7 Jan 2012 Department of Psychology, International Islamic University Malaysia,
Accepted: 11 Feb 2013 Jalan Gombak, 53100 Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract
Human cognition involves many mental processes that are highly interrelated, such as
perception, attention, memory, and thinking. An important and core cognitive process is memory,
which is commonly associated with the storing and remembering of environmental information.
An interesting issue in memory research is on ways to enhance memory performance, and thus,
remembering of information. Can colour result in improved memory abilities? The present paper
highlights the relationship between colours, attention, and memory performance. The significance
of colour in different settings is presented first, followed by a description on the nature of human
memory. The role of attention and emotional arousal on memory performance is discussed next.
The review of several studies on colours and memory are meant to explain some empirical works
done in the area and related issues that arise from such studies.

Keywords: attention, colour, long term, mental recall, short term

Introduction

Memory refers to the mental process of the public.

encoding, retaining, and retrieving environmental In the educational setting, higher demand
information (1). How the human cognitive system is put on excellent academic achievement. The
deals with the memorization process remains the extent to which students utilize their cognitive
centre of research among cognitive psychologists. abilities is also important and may contribute to
One of the most interesting and challenging better academic achievement (7). The cognitive
questions in contemporary memory research is abilities of the students refer to the way the
on ways to enhance human memory performance. students perceive, pay attention, remember,
Many variables have been proposed to contribute think, and understand the lessons. There need
to the retrieval operations and one of the variables to be strategies to facilitate the learning process
is colour, which will be discussed thoroughly in and colours can play a role in motivating students
the present paper. to learn and profit from their educational
Colour is believed to be the most important experiences.
visual experience to human beings (2). It In addition, in the clinical setting, specific
functions as a powerful information channel to interventions involving colours can be introduced
the human cognitive system and has been found to deal with memory-related problems such as
to play a significant role in enhancing memory learning difficulty, autism, dyslexia, and others.
performance (3). Colour can be very effective With the use of colour in the intervention, it
in learning and educational setting, marketing, can help patients to follow and understand the
communication, or even sport. For instance, learning program better. Clinical intervention
a marketing study has found that colour can for patients with dyslexia using colour have
increase brand recognition by up to 80% (4). been proven to be effective in reducing patient
Most advertisements use colour as one of the difficulties in reading (8). The same approach is
important element in influencing people’s also used to help autistic patients. An improvement
attention, attitude towards the product, and of reading speed up to 35% was reported for
pressuring decision making (5). According to autistic patients reading using a coloured overlay
White (6), coloured advertisements can attract compared to autistic patients reading without
people to read the advertisement up to 42% using a coloured overlay (9). Colour is also
more often than the non-coloured advertisement. used to treat patients with Alzheimer Disease.
This shows the importance of colour in making Alzheimer Disease is a neurodegenerative form
the information or message more attractive to of dementia which deteriorates memory abilities

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For permission, please email:[email protected]
Malays J Med Sci. Mar-May 2013; 20(2): 3-9

(10). Recently, there is a growing interest in important than the structures of the memory
the role of the non-biological or environmental system. The memory processes are assumed to be
factors associated with Alzheimer Disease (11). on a continuum, from shallow sensory process to
Thus, the use of colours to improve the memory a deeper semantic memory process. The shallow
performance of Alzheimer Disease patients can memory processes involve a basic and surface
be practised. In fact, research has shown that analysis of the information, such as the physical
vivid colour cues can help to enhance the short- and sensory characteristic of the information.
term memory performance of Alzheimer Disease Intermediate memory processing requires some
patients (12). degree of recognition and labelling and a deeper
A plethora of studies have been conducted processing involves a higher degree of analysis like
to understand the role of colour in enhancing processing the meaning of the information and its
memory performance. Back in 1976, Farley and link to the existing memory trace. It is assumed
Grant conducted experiments on the influence that deeper level of analyses contributes to a
of colour on attention and found that coloured more lasting and longer memory ability. In other
multimedia presentations resulted in better words, information will be stored in the long-term
attention and memory performance (13). More memory store as a result of the amount of analysis
experimental works exploring the influence of and processing done on the environmental input.
colour on the human cognitive processes were Therefore, it is important for the stimuli
conducted since then (14–16). available in the environment to have the potential
to activate the attention and to be involved in
Models of Human Memory control processes or deeper level of processing
in order for the stimuli to be better remembered.
Human memory is commonly dichotomised Previous studies have shown evidences that colour
to involve a short-term and longer-term memory is one of the variables that has those potential.
storage. This dualistic nature of memory was Colours can influence the level of attention
proposed by the early investigators of memory, and also give rise to emotional arousal which
such as William James, and Waugh and Norman contributes to control processes that will later
(17). The model proposed by Waugh and Norman, enhance memory performance (13,14,21–23).
retained the concept of a primary and a secondary
memory originally proposed by William James. Attention and memory
Their model was regarded as the first behavioural
model of memory due to its quantifying properties Attention refers to the cognitive process
of primary memory (17). The earlier work on of selecting information that is available in the
memory was well extended to lead to one of the environment. When we pay attention to certain
influential models of the human memory system information, we are actually selecting and
proposed Atkinson and Shiffrin (18). In their focusing certain amount of information to be
model, memory is made up of three structures; processed in our cognitive system. The degree
sensory register store, short-term store, and of attention attached to certain stimuli increase
long-term store. Environmental stimuli will first the probability of the information to be stored
reach the sensory register store. This memory in memory (14,15,23,24). In other words, the
store can register a huge amount of information, information that we pay more attention to is more
but the information is retained there very briefly. likely to be remembered than the information that
Information that is subject to a certain amount of we ignore and do not pay attention to. Numerous
attention is then moved to the short-term store. studies have reported that attention can increase
Information will be transferred to the long-term memory performance level in terms of the recall
store for more permanent storage as a result of rates (14,15) and also faster reaction time (23).
various types of control processes. It is said that
the use of control processes such as maintenance Attention, memory, and colour
and elaborative rehearsal, heuristic, or other
memorization strategies are important to allow Colour helps us in memorizing certain
the information to be transferred from the short- information by increasing our attentional level.
term store to long-term store. The role played by colour in enhancing our
An alternative to the model of memory attention level is undisputable (14,23). The more
proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin is the model attention focused on certain stimuli, the more
proposed by Craik and Lockhart (19). They argued chances of the stimuli to be transferred to a more
that the processes involved in memory were more permanent memory storage (18). As stated earlier,

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 Review Article | Colour and memory

colours have the potential to attract attention. psychological, physiological, and emotional
Farley and Grant (13), were among the earliest arousal. In the study of memory, emotional
who came out with a theory suggesting that arousal is focused on more than the other types
colours have a greater effect on attention. This of arousal. MacKay and Ahmetzanov (25)
conclusion was based on their study on attention conducted a study on the relationship between
and cognition. They compared colour and non- emotional arousal and memory by using taboo
colour multimedia presentations on memory stroop paradigm. They predicted better memory
performance. It was reported that the coloured for taboo words (which were more emotionally
multimedia presentation resulted in better arousing) than neutral words. It was found
attention than the non-coloured presentation. that the participants performed better in
Greene, Bell, and Boyer (21), further explained experimental conditions that were associated
that warm types of colours such as yellow, red with emotionally arousing words (taboo words)
and orange have been found to have a greater than the conditions with neutral words (26).
effect on attention compared to the cool type This result complements the study of Heuer and
of colours like brown and gray. Reisberg (27), that found better retention in
Pan (23) found similar findings in his study long-term recall with a high level of emotional
on working memory and visual attention. In arousal. Similarly, a high level of arousal leads
his study, participants were asked to identify to enhancement of both short-term and long-term
whether the colour or the shape of the two memory. In an experiment conducted by Corteen
objects that were presented were the same. (cited in 27), which used aurally presented
In the first experiment, the colours of the two words, it was reported that higher recall was
objects were the same but the shapes were found after 20 minutes and two week delays.
different, while in the second experiment the The same result was reported in an experiment
conditions were reversed. The result showed which used a single arousing word. Recall
that the participants’ response times were performance was found to be better with words
faster in identifying the differences in colours that have arousal effect than non-arousal
compared to differences in the shapes of the words. However, there was also evidence on
objects in both experimental conditions (23). the detrimental effects of arousal especially on
This finding can be interpreted to show that short-term retention. For instance in learning,
colours have a better and greater ability to the participants who have high arousal effect
capture attention than other variables. remembered better in the delayed recall rather
Pan (14) extended his previous study by than shortly after learning process. According
verifying the colours. He used visual geometrical to Kleinsmith and Kaplan (28), words that
shapes with various colours. The participants can produce greater arousal effect were better
(n = 22) were asked to memorize both the colours remembered after one week than two minutes
and shape of the items. In the memory test, after the learning process. Thus, from the studies
the participants were asked to recognize the mentioned above, the level of arousal evoked
colours and the shapes of the items that were by environmental stimuli can have a significant
presented earlier on. He found that participants effect on memory performance in whether the
performed better in recognizing the colour of short-term or long-term memory storage.
the items than the shapes. The result supported
his previous studies where colour had a stronger Arousal, memory and colour
attention effect than the shape, F (1, 21) = 4.984,
P = 0.031, η2 = 0.192. This suggests that, colours Arousal, especially emotional arousal, can
can produce a higher level of attention and play an essential role in keeping the information
is effective to increase memory performance. in the memory system. Colours can enhance the
Therefore, it can be concluded that colours have relationship between arousal and memory. Kaya
the tendency to capture better attention level, and Epps (22), asked their 98 college student
and thus, better memory. volunteers in public institutions to associate
colours with emotion. It was found that the
Arousal and memory majority of participants associated green colour
with the feeling of calmness, happiness, comfort,
Arousal refers to the state of being alert peace, hope, and excitement. Black colour was
physically and internally. Various body system associated with the feeling of sadness, depression,
and hormones may contribute to alertness (20). fear, and anger. This means that colours have an
The concept of arousal may include the physical, emotional arousing effect. However, the degree

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Malays J Med Sci. Mar-May 2013; 20(2): 3-9

of arousal level may differ depending on the type The participants reported 5% to 10% better
of emotion or feeling being attached to it (29). performance on colours over black-and-white
According to Jackson, Wu, Linden, and Raymond condition. In their second experiment, the
(29), some types of emotion may have a greater same images were used but with the exposure
effect on arousal than the others. For instance, duration of one second and in six different image
anger was found to have a greater arousal effect contrasts; 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 70%, and 100%.
than happy or neutral type of emotion. Red colour These contrasts were applied in colour and
is being attached with stronger emotion or feeling black-and-white images. Colour images were
compared to the other type of colours. Based reported to have better memory recognition
on the studies mentioned, it shows that colour over black-and-white, but the differences were
can produce an emotional arousing effect but small. However, there were no significant
the degree or range of arousal varies depending differences found at the lower contrast level
on the emotional element that is attached with (5% and 10%). According to the authors, the
specific type of colour. images in the low contrast level were hardly
visible and seen. In their third experiment, the
Colour and Memory Performance same procedure was used, but participants were
tested in different conditions. Those images
Colour has been found to influence memory that were presented in colour were tested in
performance by increasing our attentional level black-and-white and vice versa. A significant
and arousal. There exist robust evidences from interaction was found between study mode
several studies that have been conducted to and test mode, F (1, 30) = 8.209, P < 0.01.
explore the relationship between colour and However, the performance of the images that
memory performance. Those studies are reviewed were presented in colour and tested in black-and-
in detail below. white was deteriorated. The same goes for the
Spence, Wong, Rusan, and Rastegar (16) images that were presented in black-and-white
examined the ability to recognise coloured and tested in colour. However, the performance
and gray-scale images of neutral scenes was better with the colour images tested in colour,
with 120 participants. They reported that F (1, 30) = 4.576, P < 0.05. A similar finding
participants’ recognition of the neutral scenes was reported in the fifth experiment, where the
were approximately 5% higher in the coloured images with the coloured frame show significant
condition compared to the grey scale condition, improvement (77.0% to 80.0%) in memory
F  (1,  112)  =  47.0,  P  <  0.0001.  The  same recognition than images with the black frame,
comparison was significant at the 0.05 level t (19) = 2.51, P < 0.05.
or better for different exposure durations. A Vernon and Lloyd-Jones (30) conducted
similar finding was reached in a recall test a study to further explore the effect of colour in
conducted by Smilek and colleagues (15). Smilek, implicit and explicit memory performance. In
Dixon, and Merikle (15), carried out a study to one of their hypotheses, they expected a shorter
investigate the influence of colour on memory response time to coloured stimuli in comparison
performance. They used digit numbers with four to  non-coloured/black  and  white  stimuli.
different conditions; black, white, congruent, 30  coloured  and  30  non-coloured  objects
and incongruent colour conditions. They utilized were used in the study. In the study phase, the
the undergraduate students as their participants participants were involved in the naming task of
in the study. Three minutes were given to the those 60 experimental objects. While in the test
participants to study the stimuli and another phase, the participants were asked to recognize
three minutes for them to recall the stimuli. The the objects which have been categorized in three
stimuli were exposed to the participants through different conditions; same colour, change colour
a computer screen. Significant differences were and non-colour. 20 new objects (10 coloured and
found between recall conditions. The memory 10 non-coloured) were added in the test phase.
performance of the participants was found to Response time, percentage of the score, hit, and
be better in the congruent colour condition correct rejection rate were observed. The result
compared to the other conditions (26). revealed a significant effect on coloured object
Wichmann,  Sharpe,  and  Gegenfurtner F (1, 29) = 7.02, P < 0.05. This means participants
(3), found a clear advantage of colour on visual took faster time to recognise objects in the
memory. In their first experiment, they tested coloured than non-coloured condition.
the colour recognition of the participants on The above studies indicated that colour
the 50 milisecond to one second duration. can have a positive influence on memory

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 Review Article | Colour and memory

performance. A few studies have however figure and background colours may explain the
found contradictory findings. Lloyd-Jones result obtained.
and Nakabayashi (31), carried out a study on Hall and Hanna (33), conducted a study on
the effects of colour on object identification webpage text and background colour combination
and memorization, and found out that there to memory retention. One hundred and thirty
were differences in memory performance in six university students participated in their study.
object-colour spatial integration and object They used two different types of websites; an
spatial separation. Two hundred and thirteen educational website which contained information
undergraduate students from the University of regarding a neuroscience subject and a website
Kent were involved in the study. All participants which was more commercial that had an
were non colour-blind. 75 coloured common advertisement of products. Hall and Hanna used
objects were used as stimuli in the study. There four different types of ground and figure colour
were three conditions; correctly coloured (the combinations for each of the websites; black on
object and its original colour), incorrectly coloured white background, white on black background,
(the object not with its original colour) and light blue on dark blue background and teal on
greyscale condition. There were two experimental black background. Each participant was randomly
conditions; object-colour spatial integration and assigned to each of the four conditions and they
object-colour spatial separation. In the object- were given 10 minutes to view the websites. After
colour spatial integration, the colour object that, they were required to answer 10 multiple-
was placed on the grey background while in the choice questions used to measure the readability,
object-colour spatial separation, the grey object retention, aesthetics, and behavioural intention
was placed on the colour background. In the study level. It was expected that the condition with
phase, participants rated object-colour typicality a higher contrast level of colour will result in a
on 7-point scale. In the test phase, participants higher level of readability and also retention rate.
were required to press certain buttons to indicate The result obtained show significant differences
whether the object was correctly coloured or not. in the four conditions and the post-hoc tests
The speed of the response was measured. The showed that the readability performance was
result showed that there was a significant effect highest on the black on white background
of the colour F (1, 184) = 18.3, P < 0.0001. Higher condition. This condition was interpreted to have
ratings were found for the spatially integrated the highest contrast level compared to the others
condition (M = 3.84) than for spatial separated and this contributes to a better readability level.
condition (M = 3.13). In terms of the reaction The significant result found for readability was
times, it was reported that shorter reaction however not found on retention rate. This means
times were found for correctly coloured than that the different contrast of colour combination
for incorrectly coloured in the spatial integrated used only effects readability level but not memory
condition, t (83) = –2.58, P < 0.05 but not for or retention rate (33).
spatially separated, t (83) = 0.70, P > 0.05.
Therefore, coloured object with non-coloured Factors That Influence the
background have better memory retention Effectiveness of Colour on Memory
and yielded faster respond time compared to Performance
coloured object with coloured background.
Another study by McConnohie (32) used The studies reviewed above showed that
alphanumeric characters and showed them to colours can lead to better memory performance.
the participants through slideshow with three There are however studies that indicate an
background colour conditions; white, blue and opposing effect of colour on memory. On the
green. All the figure characters were in black. basis of the studies reviewed previously, it can
If the colours have positive effect on memory, be summarized that the effectiveness of colour
performance was expected to be equal in these on memory performance is based on a few
conditions. The result however showed that the factors. First is the consistency of the colours
slides with the white background resulted in used during encoding and retrieval phases. This
higher retention rates both in immediate and means the colour used or presented during the
delayed recall tasks than those with blue and time when participants are asked to memorize
green background. This result contradicts the should be the same with the colour shown to them
previous studies in that only certain colours lead at the time of retrieval. This rule is in line with
to better memory. Nevertheless, in this study, the encoding specificity principle that highlights
the colours chosen and the manipulation in the the close connection between these two memory

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Malays J Med Sci. Mar-May 2013; 20(2): 3-9

processes, encoding, and retrieval in determining participated in the experiment. The authors also
the memory performance. The greater match of thanked the reviewers of this article for their
conditions in these two processes, the better is valuable comments and suggestions.
the retrieval outcome. The results of this study have not been
Another factor that needs to be taken into presented in any symposium.
account is when few colours or combination
of colours are involved (as in background and Conflict of interest
foreground conditions). The right combination
of colours is important because it can produce Nil.
higher level of contrast, and this can influence
memory retention. Higher level of contrast may Funds
refer to the colour hue (the wavelength) and
the luminance (brightness of the colour) of the This work was supported by the IIUM Research
colour (33). It was predicted that higher level of Endowment Grant (EDW A11-439-1230) .
contrast will attract more attention and better
visibility of an object or information. Stimuli with Authors’ Contributions
white foreground on red background can have
a higher level of contrast compared to the other Drafting of the article: MFMM
colour combination. Similarly, the use of a white Critical revision of the article for the important
colour background with black colour foreground intellectual content: MFMM, MAD
has a better contrast level for memory retention Final approval of the article and obtaining of
for both short-term and long-term (32). This may funding: MAD
be the reason for the top fast-food restaurants
in the world to be associated and branded with Correspondence
vivid colour. For example, McDonalds used
yellow and red colour in the logo, while Kentucky Dr  Mariam  Adawiah  Dzulkifli
Fried Chicken is remembered with red and white BHsc (IIUM), MSc (Birmingham), PhD (Cardiff)
colour combinations. Colour therefore played Department of Psychology
a very important role in influencing consumers International Islamic University Malaysia
Jalan Gombak
psychologically, which is characterized by
53100 Selangor
emotional attachment, attention, memory, and Malaysia
attitude that later increase the likelihood of Tel: +603-6196 5143
buying behaviour. Fax: +603-6196 5062
Email: [email protected]
Conclusion
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