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Abstract Human cognition involves many mental processes that are highly interrelated, such asperception,attention,memory,andthinking.Animportantandcorecognitiveprocessismemory,which is commonlyassociatedwith the storingandrememberingof environmental information.An interesting issue inmemoryresearch isonways toenhancememoryperformance,and thus,rememberingofinformation.Cancolourresultinimprovedmemoryabilities?Thepresentpaperhighlightstherelationshipbetweencolours,attention,andmemoryperformance.Thesignificanceofcolourindifferentsettingsispresentedfirst,followedbyadescriptiononthenatureofhumanmemory.Theroleofattentionandemotionalarousalonmemoryperformanceisdiscussednext.Thereviewofseveralstudiesoncoloursandmemoryaremeanttoexplainsomeempiricalworksdoneintheareaandrelatedissuesthatarisefromsuchstudies.

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

Introduction

Memory refers to the mental process ofencoding,retaining,andretrievingenvironmentalinformation(1).Howthehumancognitivesystemdealswiththememorizationprocessremainsthecentreofresearchamongcognitivepsychologists.One of the most interesting and challengingquestions in contemporary memory research isonwaystoenhancehumanmemoryperformance.Manyvariableshavebeenproposedtocontributetotheretrievaloperationsandoneofthevariablesis colour,whichwill be discussed thoroughly inthepresentpaper. Colourisbelievedtobethemostimportantvisual experience to human beings (2). Itfunctions as a powerful information channel tothehumancognitivesystemandhasbeenfoundto play a significant role in enhancing memoryperformance (3). Colour can be very effectivein learning and educational setting, marketing,communication, or even sport. For instance,a marketing study has found that colour canincrease brand recognition by up to 80% (4).Most advertisements use colour as one of theimportant element in influencing people’sattention, attitude towards the product, andpressuring decision making (5). According toWhite (6), coloured advertisements can attractpeople to read the advertisement up to 42%moreoftenthanthenon-colouredadvertisement.This shows the importance of colour inmakingthe information or message more attractive to

thepublic. In the educational setting, higher demandis put on excellent academic achievement. Theextent to which students utilize their cognitiveabilities isalsoimportantandmaycontributetobetter academic achievement (7). The cognitiveabilities of the students refer to the way thestudents perceive, pay attention, remember,think, and understand the lessons. There needtobe strategies to facilitate the learningprocessandcolourscanplayaroleinmotivatingstudentsto learn and profit from their educationalexperiences. In addition, in the clinical setting, specificinterventionsinvolvingcolourscanbeintroducedto deal with memory-related problems such aslearning difficulty, autism, dyslexia, and others.With the use of colour in the intervention, itcan help patients to follow and understand thelearning program better. Clinical interventionfor patients with dyslexia using colour havebeen proven to be effective in reducing patientdifficulties inreading (8).Thesameapproach isalsousedtohelpautisticpatients.Animprovementof reading speed up to 35% was reported forautisticpatientsreadingusingacolouredoverlaycompared to autistic patients reading withoutusing a coloured overlay (9). Colour is alsoused to treat patients with Alzheimer Disease.Alzheimer Disease is a neurodegenerative formofdementiawhichdeterioratesmemoryabilities

Review Article The Influence of Colour on Memory Performance: A Review

Mariam Adawiah Dzulkifli, Muhammad Faiz Mustafar

Department of Psychology, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 53100 Selangor, Malaysia

Submitted:7Jan2012Accepted: 11Feb2013

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(10). Recently, there is a growing interest inthe role of the non-biological or environmentalfactors associated with Alzheimer Disease (11).Thus,theuseofcoloursto improvethememoryperformance of Alzheimer Disease patients canbe practised. In fact, research has shown thatvividcolourcuescanhelp toenhance theshort-termmemoryperformanceofAlzheimerDiseasepatients(12). A plethora of studies have been conductedto understand the role of colour in enhancingmemory performance. Back in 1976, Farley andGrant conducted experiments on the influenceof colour on attention and found that colouredmultimedia presentations resulted in betterattention and memory performance (13). Moreexperimental works exploring the influence ofcolour on the human cognitive processes wereconductedsincethen(14–16).

Models of Human Memory

Humanmemoryiscommonlydichotomisedtoinvolveashort-termandlonger-termmemorystorage. This dualistic nature of memory wasproposed by the early investigators of memory,suchasWilliamJames,andWaughandNorman(17).ThemodelproposedbyWaughandNorman,retainedtheconceptofaprimaryandasecondarymemory originally proposed byWilliam James.Theirmodelwasregardedasthefirstbehaviouralmodelofmemoryduetoitsquantifyingpropertiesof primary memory (17). The earlier work onmemorywaswellextendedto leadtooneof theinfluentialmodelsofthehumanmemorysystemproposed Atkinson and Shiffrin (18). In theirmodel,memory ismade up of three structures;sensory register store, short-term store, andlong-termstore.Environmental stimuliwillfirstreach the sensory register store. This memorystorecanregisterahugeamountofinformation,buttheinformationisretainedthereverybriefly.Informationthatissubjecttoacertainamountofattention is thenmoved to the short-termstore.Informationwillbe transferredto the long-termstore formore permanent storage as a result ofvarioustypesofcontrolprocesses.It issaidthattheuseofcontrolprocessessuchasmaintenanceand elaborative rehearsal, heuristic, or othermemorization strategies are important to allowtheinformationtobetransferredfromtheshort-termstoretolong-termstore. An alternative to the model of memoryproposed byAtkinson and Shiffrin is themodelproposedbyCraikandLockhart(19).Theyarguedthattheprocessesinvolvedinmemoryweremore

important than the structures of the memorysystem.Thememoryprocessesareassumedtobeonacontinuum,fromshallowsensoryprocesstoadeepersemanticmemoryprocess.Theshallowmemory processes involve a basic and surfaceanalysisof the information,suchas thephysicaland sensory characteristic of the information.Intermediatememory processing requires somedegreeofrecognitionandlabellingandadeeperprocessinginvolvesahigherdegreeofanalysislikeprocessingthemeaningoftheinformationanditslink to theexistingmemory trace. It isassumedthat deeper level of analyses contributes to amorelastingandlongermemoryability.Inotherwords,informationwillbestoredinthelong-termmemorystoreasaresultoftheamountofanalysisandprocessingdoneontheenvironmentalinput. Therefore, it is important for the stimuliavailableintheenvironmenttohavethepotentialto activate the attention and to be involved incontrol processes or deeper level of processinginorderforthestimulitobebetterremembered.Previousstudieshaveshownevidencesthatcolouris one of the variables that has those potential.Colours can influence the level of attentionand also give rise to emotional arousal whichcontributes to control processes that will laterenhancememoryperformance(13,14,21–23).

Attention and memory

Attention refers to the cognitive processof selecting information that is available in theenvironment.Whenwe pay attention to certaininformation, we are actually selecting andfocusing certain amount of information to beprocessed in our cognitive system. The degreeof attention attached to certain stimuli increasethe probability of the information to be storedin memory (14,15,23,24). In other words, theinformationthatwepaymoreattentiontoismorelikelytoberememberedthantheinformationthatweignoreanddonotpayattentionto.Numerousstudieshavereportedthatattentioncanincreasememoryperformancelevel intermsoftherecallrates(14,15)andalsofasterreactiontime(23).

Attention, memory, and colour

Colour helps us in memorizing certaininformation by increasing our attentional level.The role played by colour in enhancing ourattentionlevelisundisputable(14,23).Themoreattention focused on certain stimuli, the morechancesofthestimulitobetransferredtoamorepermanentmemorystorage(18).Asstatedearlier,

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colours have the potential to attract attention.Farley and Grant (13), were among the earliestwho came out with a theory suggesting thatcolours have a greater effect on attention. Thisconclusionwasbasedontheirstudyonattentionand cognition. They compared colour and non-colour multimedia presentations on memoryperformance. It was reported that the colouredmultimedia presentation resulted in betterattention than the non-coloured presentation.Greene, Bell, and Boyer (21), further explainedthat warm types of colours such as yellow, redand orange have been found to have a greatereffect on attention compared to the cool typeofcolourslikebrownandgray. Pan(23)foundsimilarfindingsinhisstudyon working memory and visual attention. Inhis study, participants were asked to identifywhether the colour or the shape of the twoobjects that were presented were the same.In the first experiment, the colours of the twoobjects were the same but the shapes weredifferent, while in the second experiment theconditions were reversed. The result showedthat the participants’ response times werefaster in identifying the differences in colourscompared to differences in the shapes of theobjects in both experimental conditions (23).This finding can be interpreted to show thatcolours have a better and greater ability tocaptureattentionthanothervariables. Pan (14) extended his previous study byverifyingthecolours.Heusedvisualgeometricalshapes with various colours. The participants(n=22)wereaskedtomemorizeboththecoloursand shape of the items. In the memory test,the participants were asked to recognize thecolours and the shapes of the items that werepresentedearlieron.He found thatparticipantsperformed better in recognizing the colour ofthe items than the shapes.The result supportedhispreviousstudieswherecolourhadastrongerattentioneffectthantheshape,F(1,21)=4.984,P=0.031,η2=0.192.Thissuggeststhat,colourscan produce a higher level of attention andis effective to increase memory performance.Therefore, itcanbeconcludedthatcolourshavethe tendency to capture better attention level,andthus,bettermemory.

Arousal and memory

Arousal refers to the state of being alertphysically and internally. Various body systemandhormonesmaycontribute toalertness (20).Theconceptofarousalmayincludethephysical,

psychological, physiological, and emotionalarousal. In the study of memory, emotionalarousal is focusedonmore than theother typesof arousal. MacKay and Ahmetzanov (25)conducted a study on the relationship betweenemotional arousal and memory by using taboostroopparadigm.Theypredictedbettermemoryfor taboo words (which were more emotionallyarousing) than neutral words. It was foundthat the participants performed better inexperimental conditions that were associatedwith emotionally arousing words (taboo words)than the conditions with neutral words (26).ThisresultcomplementsthestudyofHeuerandReisberg (27), that found better retention inlong-term recall with a high level of emotionalarousal. Similarly, a high level of arousal leadstoenhancementofbothshort-termandlong-termmemory.InanexperimentconductedbyCorteen(cited in 27), which used aurally presentedwords, it was reported that higher recall wasfound after 20 minutes and two week delays.The same result was reported in an experimentwhich used a single arousing word. Recallperformancewas found to be betterwithwordsthat have arousal effect than non-arousalwords. However, there was also evidence onthe detrimental effects of arousal especially onshort-term retention. For instance in learning,the participants who have high arousal effectremembered better in the delayed recall ratherthan shortly after learning process. Accordingto Kleinsmith and Kaplan (28), words thatcan produce greater arousal effect were betterremembered after one week than two minutesafterthelearningprocess.Thus,fromthestudiesmentioned above, the level of arousal evokedby environmental stimuli can have a significanteffect on memory performance in whether theshort-termorlong-termmemorystorage.

Arousal, memory and colour

Arousal, especially emotional arousal, canplayanessentialroleinkeepingtheinformationin thememorysystem.Colourscanenhance therelationshipbetweenarousalandmemory.Kayaand Epps (22), asked their 98 college studentvolunteers in public institutions to associatecolours with emotion. It was found that themajority of participants associated green colourwiththefeelingofcalmness,happiness,comfort,peace, hope, and excitement. Black colour wasassociatedwiththefeelingofsadness,depression,fear,andanger.Thismeansthatcolourshaveanemotional arousing effect. However, the degree

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ofarousallevelmaydifferdependingonthetypeof emotion or feeling being attached to it (29).AccordingtoJackson,Wu,Linden,andRaymond(29), some typesof emotionmayhaveagreatereffect on arousal than the others. For instance,angerwas foundtohaveagreaterarousaleffectthanhappyorneutraltypeofemotion.Redcolourisbeingattachedwithstrongeremotionorfeelingcompared to the other type of colours. Basedon the studies mentioned, it shows that colourcan produce an emotional arousing effect butthedegree or rangeof arousal variesdependingon the emotional element that is attached withspecifictypeofcolour.

Colour and Memory Performance

Colourhasbeenfoundtoinfluencememoryperformance by increasing our attentional leveland arousal. There exist robust evidences fromseveral studies that have been conducted toexplore the relationship between colour andmemoryperformance.Thosestudiesarereviewedindetailbelow. Spence, Wong, Rusan, and Rastegar (16)examined the ability to recognise colouredand gray-scale images of neutral sceneswith 120 participants. They reported thatparticipants’ recognition of the neutral sceneswere approximately 5% higher in the colouredcondition compared to the grey scale condition,F (1, 112) = 47.0, P < 0.0001. The samecomparison was significant at the 0.05 levelor better for different exposure durations. Asimilar finding was reached in a recall testconductedbySmilekandcolleagues(15).Smilek,Dixon, andMerikle (15), carried out a study toinvestigate the influence of colour on memoryperformance.Theyuseddigitnumberswithfourdifferent conditions; black, white, congruent,andincongruentcolourconditions.Theyutilizedtheundergraduatestudentsas theirparticipantsin the study. Three minutes were given to theparticipants to study the stimuli and anotherthreeminutesforthemtorecallthestimuli.Thestimuliwereexposedtotheparticipantsthrougha computer screen. Significant differences werefound between recall conditions. The memoryperformance of the participants was found tobe better in the congruent colour conditioncomparedtotheotherconditions(26). Wichmann, Sharpe, and Gegenfurtner(3), found a clear advantage of colour on visualmemory. In their first experiment, they testedthe colour recognition of the participants onthe 50 milisecond to one second duration.

The participants reported 5% to 10% betterperformance on colours over black-and-whitecondition. In their second experiment, thesame images were used but with the exposuredurationofonesecondandinsixdifferentimagecontrasts;5%,10%,20%,40%,70%,and100%.These contrasts were applied in colour andblack-and-white images. Colour images werereported to have better memory recognitionover black-and-white, but the differences weresmall. However, there were no significantdifferences found at the lower contrast level(5% and 10%). According to the authors, theimages in the low contrast level were hardlyvisible and seen. In their third experiment, thesameprocedurewasused,butparticipantsweretested in different conditions. Those imagesthat were presented in colour were tested inblack-and-white and vice versa. A significantinteraction was found between study modeand test mode, F (1, 30) = 8.209, P < 0.01.However, the performance of the images thatwerepresentedincolourandtestedinblack-and-white was deteriorated. The same goes for theimages that were presented in black-and-whiteand tested in colour.However, theperformancewasbetterwiththecolourimagestestedincolour,F (1, 30) = 4.576, P < 0.05. A similar findingwas reported in the fifth experiment, where theimageswiththecolouredframeshowsignificantimprovement (77.0% to 80.0%) in memoryrecognition than images with the black frame, t(19)=2.51,P<0.05. Vernon and Lloyd-Jones (30) conducteda study to furtherexplore theeffectof colour inimplicit and explicit memory performance. Inoneof theirhypotheses, theyexpecteda shorterresponsetimetocolouredstimuliincomparisonto non-coloured/black and white stimuli.30 coloured and 30 non-coloured objectswere used in the study. In the study phase, theparticipantswereinvolvedinthenamingtaskofthose60experimentalobjects.While in the testphase, the participants were asked to recognizetheobjectswhichhavebeencategorizedinthreedifferentconditions;samecolour,changecolourandnon-colour.20newobjects(10colouredand10 non-coloured) were added in the test phase.Response time,percentageof thescore,hit,andcorrect rejection rate were observed. The resultrevealed a significant effect on coloured objectF(1,29)=7.02, P <0.05.Thismeansparticipantstook faster time to recognise objects in thecolouredthannon-colouredcondition. The above studies indicated that colourcan have a positive influence on memory

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performance. A few studies have howeverfound contradictory findings. Lloyd-Jonesand Nakabayashi (31), carried out a study onthe effects of colour on object identificationand memorization, and found out that therewere differences in memory performance inobject-colour spatial integration and objectspatial separation. Two hundred and thirteenundergraduate students from the University ofKentwereinvolvedinthestudy.Allparticipantswere non colour-blind. 75 coloured commonobjectswereusedas stimuli in the study.Therewere three conditions; correctly coloured (theobjectanditsoriginalcolour),incorrectlycoloured(the object not with its original colour) andgreyscalecondition.Thereweretwoexperimentalconditions; object-colour spatial integration andobject-colour spatial separation. In the object-colour spatial integration, the colour objectwasplacedon thegreybackgroundwhile in theobject-colour spatial separation, the grey objectwasplacedonthecolourbackground.Inthestudyphase,participants ratedobject-colour typicalityon 7-point scale. In the test phase, participantswererequiredtopresscertainbuttonstoindicatewhethertheobjectwascorrectlycolouredornot.The speed of the response was measured. Theresult showed that therewas a significant effectofthecolourF(1,184)=18.3,P<0.0001.Higherratings were found for the spatially integratedcondition (M= 3.84) than for spatial separatedcondition (M = 3.13). In terms of the reactiontimes, it was reported that shorter reactiontimes were found for correctly coloured thanfor incorrectly coloured in the spatial integratedcondition, t (83)= –2.58, P < 0.05 but not forspatially separated, t (83) = 0.70, P > 0.05.Therefore, coloured object with non-colouredbackground have better memory retentionand yielded faster respond time compared tocolouredobjectwithcolouredbackground. Another study by McConnohie (32) usedalphanumeric characters and showed them tothe participants through slideshow with threebackground colour conditions; white, blue andgreen. All the figure characters were in black.If the colours have positive effect on memory,performance was expected to be equal in theseconditions. The result however showed that theslides with the white background resulted inhigher retention rates both in immediate anddelayed recall tasks than those with blue andgreen background. This result contradicts thepreviousstudiesinthatonlycertaincoloursleadto better memory. Nevertheless, in this study,the colours chosen and themanipulation in the

figure and background colours may explain theresultobtained. HallandHanna(33),conductedastudyonwebpagetextandbackgroundcolourcombinationto memory retention. One hundred and thirtysixuniversitystudentsparticipatedintheirstudy.They used two different types of websites; aneducationalwebsitewhichcontainedinformationregarding a neuroscience subject and a websitewhich was more commercial that had anadvertisementofproducts.HallandHannausedfour different types of ground and figure colourcombinations for each of thewebsites; black onwhite background, white on black background,light blue on dark blue background and teal onblackbackground.Eachparticipantwasrandomlyassignedtoeachof the fourconditionsandtheyweregiven10minutestoviewthewebsites.Afterthat, theywere required to answer 10multiple-choicequestionsusedtomeasurethereadability,retention, aesthetics, and behavioural intentionlevel. It was expected that the condition witha higher contrast level of colourwill result in ahigherlevelofreadabilityandalsoretentionrate.The result obtained show significant differencesin the four conditions and the post-hoc testsshowed that the readability performance washighest on the black on white backgroundcondition.Thisconditionwasinterpretedtohavethehighestcontrastlevelcomparedtotheothersandthiscontributes toabetterreadability level.The significant result found for readability washowevernotfoundonretentionrate.Thismeansthatthedifferentcontrastofcolourcombinationusedonlyeffectsreadabilitylevelbutnotmemoryorretentionrate(33).

Factors That Influence the Effectiveness of Colour on Memory Performance

The studies reviewed above showed thatcolourscan leadtobettermemoryperformance.There are however studies that indicate anopposing effect of colour on memory. On thebasis of the studies reviewed previously, it canbe summarized that the effectiveness of colouron memory performance is based on a fewfactors. First is the consistency of the coloursusedduringencodingand retrievalphases.Thismeans the colour used or presented during thetime when participants are asked to memorizeshouldbethesamewiththecolourshowntothemat the time of retrieval. This rule is in linewiththe encoding specificityprinciple thathighlightsthecloseconnectionbetweenthesetwomemory

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processes,encoding,andretrievalindeterminingthememory performance. The greatermatch ofconditions in these two processes, the better istheretrievaloutcome. Another factor that needs to be taken intoaccount is when few colours or combinationof colours are involved (as in background andforeground conditions). The right combinationof colours is important because it can producehigher level of contrast, and this can influencememory retention.Higher level of contrastmayrefer to the colour hue (the wavelength) andthe luminance (brightness of the colour) of thecolour(33). Itwaspredictedthathigher levelofcontrast will attract more attention and bettervisibilityofanobjectorinformation.Stimuliwithwhite foreground on red background can haveahigher levelof contrast compared to theothercolourcombination.Similarly,theuseofawhitecolourbackgroundwithblackcolour foregroundhasabettercontrast level formemoryretentionforbothshort-termandlong-term(32).Thismaybe the reason for the top fast-food restaurantsin theworld to be associated and brandedwithvivid colour. For example, McDonalds usedyellowandredcolourinthelogo,whileKentuckyFriedChickenisrememberedwithredandwhitecolour combinations. Colour therefore playeda very important role in influencing consumerspsychologically, which is characterized byemotional attachment, attention, memory, andattitude that later increase the likelihood ofbuyingbehaviour.

Conclusion

An important aspect in successful andefficient cognitive functioning is the abilitiesto utilize the system to the fullest. Research onmemory has provided a vast strategy that canbe used to ensure successful retrieval. Thereappears to be a basis for associating colour andits significant effect on memory abilities. Inotherwords,colourhasthepotentialtoincreasechancesofenvironmentalstimulitobeencoded,stored, and retrieved successfully. The choiceof colours and the manipulative aspects can,however, influence the extent to which colourscaninfluencehumanmemoryperformance.

Acknowledgement

The authors thanked the InternationalIslamic University (IIUM) undergraduatestudents majoring in Psychology who have

participatedintheexperiment.Theauthorsalsothanked the reviewers of this article for theirvaluablecommentsandsuggestions. The results of this study have not beenpresentedinanysymposium.

Conflict of interest

Nil.

Funds

Thisworkwas supportedby the IIUMResearchEndowmentGrant(EDWA11-439-1230).

Authors’ Contributions

Draftingofthearticle:MFMMCritical revision of the article for the importantintellectualcontent:MFMM,MADFinal approval of the article and obtaining offunding:MAD

Correspondence

Dr Mariam Adawiah DzulkifliBHsc(IIUM),MSc(Birmingham),PhD(Cardiff)DepartmentofPsychologyInternationalIslamicUniversityMalaysiaJalanGombak53100SelangorMalaysiaTel:+603-61965143Fax:+603-61965062Email:m.adawiah@iium.edu.my

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