The effects of colour attributes on cognitive performance and intellectual abilities in immersive virtual environments

Abstract

It is known that well-designed immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environments can positively impact on user experiences, with results evidencing that a considered approach to hue design can trigger positive cognitive performance and intellectual abilities. However, limited research has been conducted to study the design potential of chroma and brightness colour attributes of immersive VR environments. This study investigates the impacts of colour attributes on cognitive performance and intellectual abilities in immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Environments. The paper included the results of two psychological experiments that evaluate people's cognitive performance to different chroma and brightness, respectively. The experiments further studied effects of colour attributes on participants' logical and lateral thinking abilities, as well as their attention to details. Participants' response time and error rate when completing each psychometric test were recorded with different hue, chroma, and brightness backgrounds in immersive virtual environments. The data collected from participants reveal the differential impacts of colour attributes on people's cognitive performance and intellectual abilities in immersive VR environments. The findings of our study provide new insights to metaverse areas of research suggests that effective use of colour design in the immersive digital context can positively trigger people's cognitive performance and intellectual abilities at an unconscious level.