The Influence Of Red And Blue On The Cognitive Tasks Of Chinese College Students

Color is one of basics of human perception.Color not only can stimulate perceptual reactivity,but also induce correspondent motivation which is relative to individual experience.And then color has an effect on high-level psychological activity such as cognition.While there are not numerous researches on the effect of color on cognitive task performances,and the conclusions are mainly concentrated in foreign countries.The implicit association meaning of color is the expression of the national collective unconscious,under the the culture which is produced by the cooperation of the whole nation.Therefore,the connotation of color and culture are closely related.Especially red is respected in Chinese culture,this cultural orientation is different from the western,which is mean more derogation than favorable.Thus the cross-cultural study of the influence of color on cognitive task is particularly important. Therefore,the present study designed three experiments to explore the influence of red and blue to cognitive task performances and the influence mechanism in the middle under China cultural background.In Experiment 1,we use Implicit Association Test to explore the implicit connection between color blocks and words,including approaching motivation words and avoiding motivation words.Experiment2.1chose the creative imagery task as a creative cognitive task,and experiment2.2 chose a proofreading task as the detail-oriented cognitive task to inquiry the mediating role of motivation between them.Results:(1) In the context of Chinese culture,red(versus blue) can activate an approach(avoidance) motivation,while blue is opposite.(2) Red(versus blue and neutral) can enhance performances on the creative imagery task,and approach motivation is the driving force for the effect.(3) Blue(versus red and neutral) can enhance performances on the proofreading task,and avoidance motivation is the driving force for the effect.Our study demonstrate the influence of color on the cognitive tasks and the intermediary role motivation plays under the Chinese culture.