Abstract
This research explores the influence of colour on cognitive performance and intellectual abilities (i.e., logical and lateral thinking abilities and people’s attention to detail) in a conventional laboratory setting and an approximately identical virtual reality (VR) environment. Comparative experiments using psychological methods were carried out in both settings to explore the impact of immersive colour experience. This work builds on earlier studies that suggest that the VR environment enhances user experiences, with results evidencing that a considered approach to colour design can trigger a positive impact on user engagement. The experiments further evaluated the positive effects of immersive colour stimuli in VR by evaluating participants’ logical and lateral thinking abilities, as well as their attention to detail. Their response time and error rate when completing each psychometric test were recorded with different hue backgrounds in both environments. The data collected from participants reveal the differential impacts of colour between the reality setting using standard colour imaging displays and in an approximately identical VR environment. Analysis of the psychometric tests shows the differential influence of colours on logical and lateral thinking abilities and people’s attention to detail between the physical environment and the VR environment. Our findings add to the data demonstrating that a well-designed immersive colour experience in VR can trigger positive user engagement and, as explored in this study, improve cognitive performance. This again positions immersive colour experience as an important design tool to be fully considered in the creation of effective VR research and applications.
Highlights
It is recognised that the success of immersive virtual reality (VR) environments is due in part to their design and the effective trigger of human emotions and behaviours
In line with previous observations, the arguments highlight that immersion and presence are key features of the VR experience, but there are questions as to how well this experience is fully understood or whether there are greater possibilities to explore in its design potential [1,2,3,4]
Participants’ impulsiveness and arousal were defined as: high arousal (HA), faster reactions and lower error rate; low arousal (LA), slower reactions and higher error rate; high impulsiveness (HI), shorter response time and higher error rate; and low impulsiveness (LI), longer response time and lower error rate [7,8,65,71]
Summary
It is recognised that the success of immersive VR environments is due in part to their design and the effective trigger of human emotions and behaviours. Colour research has demonstrated the real-world design potential of colour and light on people’s arousal and impulsiveness, affecting their emotions and cognitive performance [6,7,8]. Chernyak and Stark’s [56] research does not mention the potential of colour and light conditions as key visual cues to trigger people’s perceptual systems or their psychological and physiological reactions. Considering the understood importance of colour and light as triggers of human response and engagement, an interesting question arises in this study as to the effective use of colour and light in VR and whether they can help create a higher degree of focus and concentration, potentially having a positive impact on immersion. We present comparative psychological experiments that validate the impact of colour on arousal and impulse levels in both physical and VR environments as an indirect approach to validating the impacts of colour on people’s cognitive abilities in reality and in VR spaces
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