Color and psychological functioning: The effect of red on performance attainment

Colored valence in a lexical decision task

Color influences behavior, from the simplest to the most complex, through controlled and more automatic information elaboration processes. Nonetheless, little is known about how and when these highly interconnected processes interact. This study investigates the interaction between controlled and automatic processes during the processing of color information in a lexical decision task. Participants discriminated stimuli presented in different colors (red, blue, green) as words or pseudowords. Results showed that while color did not affect the faster and more accurate recognition of words compared to pseudowords, performance was influenced when examining words and pseudowords separately. Pseudowords were recognized faster when presented in blue or red, suggesting a potential influence of evolutionary color preferences when processing is not guided by more controlled processes. With words, emotional enhancement effects were found, with a preference for green independent of valence. These results suggest that controlled and more automatic processes do interact when processing color information according to stimulus type and task.

Contextual modulation of the red-attractiveness effect: Differences in affiliation and competitive settings

Color is not just about aesthetics but also communicates specific information and has important implications for psychological functioning. It has been shown that the color red enhances perceived attractiveness when evaluating the opposite sex, which we call the red-attractiveness effect. However, few studies have attached importance to the social context in which attractiveness ratings are made, which means that the red-attractiveness effect is rarely explained by analyzing the role of social context. We conducted two experiments to test the red-attractiveness effect in Chinese culture and the influence of context (affiliation or competitive) on the red-attractiveness effect. Experiment 1 (160 Chinese college students, 80 males) showed that the opposite-sex target in red, compared to white, was rated more attractive, and the red-attractiveness effect was applicable to Chinese culture. Experiment 2 (480 Chinese college students, 240 males) found that perceived attractiveness was strengthened in the affiliation context and weakened in the competitive context, that is, the main effect of context was significant. We did not find any significant effect of the color red in either context, that is, the color main effect was not significant. However, the results indicate that red can enhance perceived attractiveness when evaluating the opposite sex. This study demonstrates that the red attractiveness effect may exist in different cultural backgrounds and contexts.

Color War. Does Color Influence the Perception of Political Messages?

Several studies have shown that exposure to colors affects cognitive and affective processes. In this paper, we tried to find if colors affect the perception of political messages and activate partisan biases. We focus our study on the Spanish cultural environment. In a prestudy (n = 991), participants identified red as progressive, blue as conservative, and gray as neutral. In two subsequent experiments (n = 840; n = 938), we analyzed how these three colors influenced the interpretation of political messages and confronted them with issues ownership. The results show that the colors can activate partisan biases but do not have the same strength as issues ownership.

Mimicking Facial Expressions Facilitates Working Memory for Stimuli in Emotion-Congruent Colours

It is one thing for everyday phrases like "seeing red" to link some emotions with certain colours (e.g., anger with red), but can such links measurably bias information processing? We investigated whether emotional face information (angry/happy/neutral) held in visual working memory (VWM) enhances memory for shapes presented in a conceptually consistent colour (red or green) (Experiment 1). Although emotional information held in VWM appeared not to bias memory for coloured shapes in Experiment 1, exploratory analyses suggested that participants who physically mimicked the face stimuli were better at remembering congruently coloured shapes. Experiment 2 confirmed this finding by asking participants to hold the faces in mind while either mimicking or labelling the emotional expressions of face stimuli. Once again, those who mimicked the expressions were better at remembering shapes with emotion-congruent colours, whereas those who simply labelled them were not. Thus, emotion-colour associations appear powerful enough to guide attention, but-consistent with proposed impacts of "embodied emotion" on cognition-such effects emerged when emotion processing was facilitated through facial mimicry.

Effects of color cues on eye-hand coordination training with a mirror drawing task in virtual environment

Mirror drawing is a motor learning task that is used to evaluate and improve eye-hand coordination of users and can be implemented in immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) for training purposes. In this paper, we investigated the effect of color cues on user motor performance in a mirror-drawing task between Virtual Environment (VE) and Real World (RW), with three different colors. We conducted a 5-day user study with twelve participants. The results showed that the participants made fewer errors in RW compared to VR, except for pre-training, which indicated that hardware and software limitations have detrimental effects on the motor learning of the participants across different realities. Furthermore, participants made fewer errors with the colors close to green, which is usually associated with serenity, contentment, and relaxation. According to our findings, VR headsets can be used to evaluate participants' eye-hand coordination in mirror drawing tasks to evaluate the motor-learning of participants. VE and RW training applications could benefit from our findings in order to enhance their effectiveness.

Light at night: effect on the daily clock, learning, memory, cognition, and expression of transcripts in different brain regions of rat

The rapid increase in urbanization is altering the natural composition of the day-night light ratio. The light/dark cycle regulates animal learning, memory, and mood swings. A study was conducted to examine the effect of different quantity and quality of light at night on the daily clock, learning, memory, cognition, and expression of transcripts in key learning centers. Treatment was similar for experiments one to three. Rats were exposed for 30 days to 12 h light and 12 h dark with a night light of 2 lx (dLAN group), 250 lx (LL), or without night light (LD). In experiment one, after 28 days, blood samples were collected and 2 days later, animals were exposed to constant darkness. In experiment two, after 30 days of treatment, animals were subjected to various tests involving learning, memory, and cognition. In experiment three, after 30 days of treatment, animals were sampled, and transcript levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, tyrosine kinase, Growth-Associated Protein 43, Neurogranin, microRNA-132, cAMP Response Element-Binding Protein, Glycogen synthase kinase-3β, and Tumor necrosis factor α were measured in hippocampus, thalamus, and cortex tissues. In experiment four, animals were exposed to night light of 0.019 W/m2 but of either red (640 nm), green (540 nm), or blue (450 nm) wavelength for 30 days, and similar tests were performed as mentioned in experiment 2. While in experiment five, after 30 days of respective wavelength treatments, all animals were sampled for gene expression studies. Our results show that exposure to dLAN and LL affects the daily clock as reflected by altered melatonin secretion and locomotor activity, compromises the learning, memory, and cognitive ability, and alterations in the expression levels of transcripts in the hypothalamus, cortex, and thalamus. The effect is night light intensity dependent. Further, blue light at night has less drastic effects than green and red light. These results could be of the potential use of framing the policies for the use of light at night.

Deontic signs increase control monitoring: evidence from a modified traffic flanker task

Deontic norms are expected to impose individuals' control over their behavior. In this paper, we address such norms presented in traffic signs and test their influence over executive control functions. For Experiment 1, we develop a traffic flanker task in which the typical neutral arrows are replaced with traffic prohibition/obligation signs. Experiment 2 isolated the deontic aspect of the signs using simple arrows on red, blue, and green backgrounds and either primed them to be interpreted as traffic signs or as elements of a gaming console controller. Results in both studies show evidence of controlling context interferences more efficiently when dealing with deontic (traffic) signs than with simple arrows (Experiment 1) or with similar perceptive targets when primed with a deontic context than with a gaming context (Experiment 2). In both studies, obligation/blue signs mitigate flanker effects less than prohibition/red signs. Stimuli color affects the alertness of the cognitive system, with the color red being, by itself, a cue for increased control. Based on temporal analysis, we further discuss these results as evidence of an increase in proactive control that aims to prevent the occurrence of undesirable influence.

The influence of a color themed HMI on trust and take-over performance in automated vehicles

Introduction

SAE Level 3 is known as conditional driving automation. As long as certain conditions are met, there is no need to supervise the technology and the driver can engage in non-driving related tasks (NDRTs). However, a human driver must be present and alert to take over when the automation is facing its system limits. When such an emergency takes place, the automation uses the human machine interface (HMI) to send a take-over request (TOR) to the driver.

Methods

We investigated the influence of a color themed HMI on the trust and take-over performance in automated vehicles. Using a driving simulator, we tested 45 participants divided in three groups with a baseline auditory HMI and two advanced color themed HMIs consisting of a display and ambient lighting with the colors red and blue. Trust in automation was assessed using questionnaires while take-over performance was assessed through response time and success rate.

Results

Compared to the baseline HMI, the color themed HMI is more trustworthy, and participants understood their driving tasks better. Results show that the color themed HMI is perceived as more pleasant compared to the baseline HMI and leads to shorter reaction times. Red ambient lighting is seen as more urging than blue, but HMI color did not significantly affect the general HMI perception and TOR performance.

Discussion

Further research can explore the use of color and other modalities to express varying urgency levels and validate findings in complex on road driving conditions.

Approach in green, avoid in red? Examining interindividual variabilities and personal color preferences through continuous measures of specific meaning associations

Empirically based literature suggests that avoidance/approach motivation arising from color-meaning associations assume a key mediational role in the color effect during psychological functioning. Even if several studies investigated color-meaning associations through different methodological approaches, no study investigated specific color-meaning associations (1) through continuous measures (2) for both positive and negative meanings. In addition, color effects are not unequivocal, and interindividual variability issues are still underexplored. The present study is based on the application of visual analog scales to assess continuous measures of specific color-meaning associations related to both negative and positive meanings that could rely on avoidance/approach motivation. The data analyses compared the distribution of the color-meaning association scores rated by participants (N = 152) on visual analog scales. The results showed strong associations between red color and items that could be related to avoidance motivation. Conversely, green color association scores showed distinct and specific associations that could be related to approach motivation. The results also revealed that blue color could exhibit a similar pattern for some meaning association scores compared with green color, as well as orange compared with red association scores. In addition, the results suggest that color preferences may influence color effects, especially regarding color-related approach motivation. The present study provides new insights about the color effect on psychological functioning and a novel approach to investigate the mediational processes such as avoidance/approach motivation that considers interindividual differences along a continuum.

Empirically validated theoretical analysis of visual-spatial perception under change of nervous system arousal

Introduction

Visual-spatial perception is a process for extracting the spatial relationship between objects in the environment. The changes in visual-spatial perception due to factors such as the activity of the sympathetic nervous system (hyperactivation) or parasympathetic nervous system (hypoactivation) can affect the internal representation of the external visual-spatial world. We formulated a quantitative model of the modulation of visual-perceptual space under action by hyperactivation or hypoactivation-inducing neuromodulating agents. We showed a Hill equation based relationship between neuromodulator agent concentration and alteration of visual-spatial perception utilizing the metric tensor to quantify the visual space.

Methods

We computed the dynamics of the psilocybin (hyperactivation-inducing agent) and chlorpromazine (hypoactivation-inducing agent) in brain tissue. Then, we validated our quantitative model by analyzing the findings of different independent behavioral studies where subjects were assessed for alterations in visual-spatial perception under the action of psilocybin and under chlorpromazine. To validate the neuronal correlates, we simulated the effect of the neuromodulating agent on the computational model of the grid-cell network, and also performed diffusion MRI-based tractography to find the neural tracts between the cortical areas involved: V2 and the entorhinal cortex.

Results

We applied our computational model to an experiment (where perceptual alterations were measured under psilocybin) and found that for n (Hill-coefficient) = 14.8 and k = 1.39, the theoretical prediction followed experimental observations very well (χ2 test robustly satisfied, p > 0.99). We predicted the outcome of another psilocybin-based experiment using these values (n = 14.8 and k = 1.39), whereby our prediction and experimental outcomes were well corroborated. Furthermore, we found that also under hypoactivation (chlorpromazine), the modulation of the visual-spatial perception follows our model. Moreover, we found neural tracts between the area V2 and entorhinal cortex, thus providing a possible brain network responsible for encoding visual-spatial perception. Thence, we simulated the altered grid-cell network activity, which was also found to follow the Hill equation.

Conclusion

We developed a computational model of visuospatial perceptual alterations under altered neural sympathetic/parasympathetic tone. We validated our model using analysis of behavioral studies, neuroimaging assessment, and neurocomputational evaluation. Our quantitative approach may be probed as a potential behavioral screening and monitoring methodology in neuropsychology to analyze perceptual misjudgment and mishaps by highly stressed workers.

Red induces hyperalgesia and white induces hypoalgesia regardless of pain modality

Colors are an important factor that influences different aspects of people's lives. However, little is known about the effects of colors on pain. This preregistered study aimed to investigate whether the type of pain affects the impact of colors on pain intensity. 74 participants were randomly divided into 2 groups according to the type of pain: electrical or thermal. In both groups, pain stimuli of the same intensity were preceded by different colors. Participants rated the pain intensity induced by each pain stimulus. Additionally, pain expectations related to each color were rated at the beginning and the end of the procedure. A significant effect of color on pain intensity ratings was found. Pain was most intense in both groups after red, whereas the lowest ratings were given after white. A similar pattern of results was observed for pain expectations. Expectations also correlated with and were found to be a predictor of experienced pain for white, blue, and green. The study shows that white can reduce, while red can alter the experienced pain. Moreover, it shows that the effect of colors is affected to a greater extent by the pain expectations rather than the pain modality. We conclude that the way colors influence pain broadens the current knowledge on effects of colors on human behavior and could help in the future both patients and practitioners.

Blue-light background impairs visual exogenous attention shift

Previous research into the effects of blue light on visual-spatial attention has yielded mixed results due to a lack of properly controlling critical factors like S-cone stimulation, ipRGCs stimulation, and color. We adopted the clock paradigm and systematically manipulated these factors to see how blue light impacts the speed of exogenous and endogenous attention shifts. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that, relative to the control light, exposure to the blue-light background decreased the speed of exogenous (but not endogenous) attention shift to external stimuli. To further clarify the contribution(s) of blue-light sensitive photoreceptors (i.e., S-cone and ipRGCs), we used a multi-primary system that could manipulate the stimulation of a single type of photoreceptor without changing the stimulation of other photoreceptors (i.e., the silent substitution method). Experiments 3 and 4 revealed that stimulation of S-cones and ipRGCs did not contribute to the impairment of exogenous attention shift. Our findings suggest that associations with blue colors, such as the concept of blue light hazard, cause exogenous attention shift impairment. Some of the previously documented blue-light effects on cognitive performances need to be reevaluated and reconsidered in light of our findings.

Emotional face recognition when a colored mask is worn: a cross-sectional study

Studies of the impact of face masks on emotional facial expression recognition are sparse in children. Moreover, to our knowledge no study has so far considered mask color (in adults and in children), even though this esthetic property is thought to have an impact on information processing. In order to explore these issues, the present study looked at whether first- and fifth-graders and young adults were influenced by the absence or presence (and color: pink, green, red, black, or white) of a face mask when asked to judge emotional facial expressions of fear, anger, sadness, or neutrality. Analysis of results suggested that the presence of a mask did affect the recognition of sad or fearful faces but did not influence significantly the perception of angry and neutral faces. Mask color slightly modulated the recognition of facial emotional expressions, without a systematic pattern that would allow a clear conclusion to be drawn. Moreover, none of these findings varied according to age group. The contribution of different facial areas to efficient emotion recognition is discussed with reference to methodological and theoretical considerations, and in the light of recent studies.

Graphical user interface design to improve understanding of the patient-reported outcome symptom response

BACKGROUND

Symptom monitoring application (SMA) has clinical benefits to cancer patients but patients experience difficulties in using it. Few studies have identified which types of graphical user interface (GUI) are preferred by cancer patients for using the SMA.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study aimed to identify preferred GUI among cancer patients to use SMA. Total of 199 patients were asked to evaluate 8 types of GUIs combining text, icon, illustration, and colors using mixed-methods. Subgroup analyses were performed according to age and gender.

RESULTS

The mean age of the patients was 57 and 42.5% was male. The most preferred GUI was "Text + Icon + Color" (mean = 4.43), followed by "Text + Icon" (mean = 4.39). Older patients (≥ 60 years) preferred "Text + Icon" than younger patients (p for interaction < 0.01). Simple and intuitive text and icons were the most useful GUI for cancer patients to use the SMA.

CONCLUSION

Simple and intuitive text and icons were the most useful GUI for cancer patients to use the SMA. Researchers need to be careful when applying realistic face drawings to cancer symptom monitoring applications because they can recall negative images of cancer.

Contextual inference in learning and memory

Context is widely regarded as a major determinant of learning and memory across numerous domains, including classical and instrumental conditioning, episodic memory, economic decision-making, and motor learning. However, studies across these domains remain disconnected due to the lack of a unifying framework formalizing the concept of context and its role in learning. Here, we develop a unified vernacular allowing direct comparisons between different domains of contextual learning. This leads to a Bayesian model positing that context is unobserved and needs to be inferred. Contextual inference then controls the creation, expression, and updating of memories. This theoretical approach reveals two distinct components that underlie adaptation, proper and apparent learning, respectively referring to the creation and updating of memories versus time-varying adjustments in their expression. We review a number of extensions of the basic Bayesian model that allow it to account for increasingly complex forms of contextual learning.

Self-Supervised Color-Concept Association via Image Colorization

The interpretation of colors in visualizations is facilitated when the assignments between colors and concepts in the visualizations match human's expectations, implying that the colors can be interpreted in a semantic manner. However, manually creating a dataset of suitable associations between colors and concepts for use in visualizations is costly, as such associations would have to be collected from humans for a large variety of concepts. To address the challenge of collecting this data, we introduce a method to extract color-concept associations automatically from a set of concept images. While the state-of-the-art method extracts associations from data with supervised learning, we developed a self-supervised method based on colorization that does not require the preparation of ground truth color-concept associations. Our key insight is that a set of images of a concept should be sufficient for learning color-concept associations, since humans also learn to associate colors to concepts mainly from past visual input. Thus, we propose to use an automatic colorization method to extract statistical models of the color-concept associations that appear in concept images. Specifically, we take a colorization model pre-trained on ImageNet and fine-tune it on the set of images associated with a given concept, to predict pixel-wise probability distributions in Lab color space for the images. Then, we convert the predicted probability distributions into color ratings for a given color library and aggregate them for all the images of a concept to obtain the final color-concept associations. We evaluate our method using four different evaluation metrics and via a user study. Experiments show that, although the state-of-the-art method based on supervised learning with user-provided ratings is more effective at capturing relative associations, our self-supervised method obtains overall better results according to metrics like Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) and Entropy Difference (ED), which are closer to human perception of color distributions.

The Combination of Sensor Digital Kariasa Early Detection Prototype and Health Education for Self-Management in Preventing Recurrent Ischemic Stroke

Introduction

Recurrent stroke is one of the concerns that not only causes functional disability but also economic and psychosocial problems. Self-management is one of the indicators to predict recurrent stroke. Field observations indicate there is currently no tool to increase the survivors' self-awareness.

Objective

The study aimed to investigate if an early detection tool and health education can improve patient self-awareness toward self-management in ischemic stroke patients in order to prevent recurrent ischemic stroke.

Methods

This study consisted of two stages. In the first stage, the study used research and development methods to develop a digital sensor tool named Sensor Digital Kariasa (SenDiKa). In the second stage, the study used a quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group involving 44 postischemic stroke patients who were selected by using consecutive sampling. The subjects were divided into intervention and control groups, and the length of the intervention was 12 weeks.

Results

This study found a significant difference between the two groups (P < .001). The intervention group who used the early detection tool and received health education showed better self-management compared to the control group. The use of SenDiKa early detection prototype and health education for self-management was perceived useful and gave positive effect to the improvement of self-management in poststroke patients to prevent recurrent stroke.

Conclusion

The combination of SenDiKa early detection prototype and health education for self-management can be used for patients to identify the major risk factors of recurrent stroke, such as blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol.

Disadvantages of red: The color congruence effect in comparative price advertising

Based on the metaphorical association of color, the color red is often associated with a “hot deal” in a price promotion context, which has led to the popular use of red in promotions in the marketplace. In two studies, this research challenges the lay belief that the color red used in price advertising positively influences consumers’ perceptions of value. The findings from the two studies revealed a contrasting pattern of results depending on the depth of the discount. When the discount depth was high (consistent with consumers’ lay belief), the red color led to more favorable responses to a price promotion than other colors (white or blue in Study 1 and green in Study 2). In contrast, when the discount depth was unambiguously low, consumers who were exposed to a red colored price promotion advertisement reported a perception of a lower value compared to those who saw the same advertisement with other colors We attribute this effect to the degree of “processing fluency” that arises from the congruence between the color and promotion content. Our research adds to the existing psychology literature on color functioning by showing a match between the referential meaning of the color red (i.e., a hot deal) and consumers’ perceptions in marketing communication.

Quantum core affect. Color-emotion structure of semantic atom

Psychology suffers from the absence of mathematically-formalized primitives. As a result, conceptual and quantitative studies lack an ontological basis that would situate them in the company of natural sciences. The article addresses this problem by describing a minimal psychic structure, expressed in the algebra of quantum theory. The structure is demarcated into categories of emotion and color, renowned as elementary psychological phenomena. This is achieved by means of quantum-theoretic qubit state space, isomorphic to emotion and color experiences both in meaning and math. In particular, colors are mapped to the qubit states through geometric affinity between the HSL-RGB color solids and the Bloch sphere, widely used in physics. The resulting correspondence aligns with the recent model of subjective experience, producing a unified spherical map of emotions and colors. This structure is identified as a semantic atom of natural thinking-a unit of affectively-colored personal meaning, involved in elementary acts of a binary decision. The model contributes to finding a unified ontology of both inert and living Nature, bridging previously disconnected fields of research. In particular, it enables theory-based coordination of emotion, decision, and cybernetic sciences, needed to achieve new levels of practical impact.

Oculomotor system can differentially process red and green colors during saccade programming in the presence of a competing distractor

Selective attention filters irrelevant information entering our brain to allow for fine-tuning of the relevant information processing. In the visual domain, shifts of attention are most often followed by a saccadic eye movement to objects and places of high relevance. Recent studies have shown that the stimulus color can affect saccade target selection and saccade trajectories. While those saccade modulations are based on perceptual color space, the level in the visual processing hierarchy at which color selection biases saccade programming remains unclear. As color has also been shown to influence manual response inhibition which is a key function of the prefrontal cortex, we hypothesized that the effects of color on executive functions would also inherently affect saccade programming. To test this hypothesis, we measured behavioral performance and saccade metrics during a modified saccadic Stroop task which reflects competition between color words ("RED" and "GREEN") and their color at the level of the prefrontal cortex. Our results revealed that the oculomotor system can differentially process red and green colors when planning a saccade in the presence of a competing distractor.

Feeling Blue and Getting Red: An Exploratory Study on the Effect of Color in the Processing of Emotion Information

Specific emotions and colors are associated. The current study tested whether the interference of colors with affective processing occurs solely in the semantic stage or extends to a more complex stage like the lexical processing of emotional words. We performed two experiments to determine the effect of colors on affective processing. In Experiment 1, participants completed a color-emotion priming task. The priming stimulus included a color-tinted (blue, red, and gray) image of a neutral face, followed by a target stimulus of gray-scaled emotional (angry and sad) and neutral faces after 50 ms. Experiment 2 used a modified emostroop paradigm and superimposed emotion words on the center of the color-tinted emotional and neutral faces. Results showed the priming effect of red for the angry face compared to the control, but not in blue for the sad face compared to the control. However, responses to the blue-sad pair were significantly faster than the red-sad pair. In the color-emostroop task, we observed a significant interaction between color and emotion target words in the modified emostroop task. Participants detected sad targets more accurately and faster in blue than red, but only in the incongruent condition. The results indicate that the influence of color in the processing of emotional information exists at the semantic level but found no evidence supporting the lexical level effect.

The effect of red/blue color stimuli on temporal perception under different pupillary responses induced by different equiluminant methods

As time plays a fundamental role in our social activities, scholars have studied temporal perception since the earliest days of experimental psychology. Since the 1960s, the ubiquity of color has been driving research on the potential effects of the colors red and blue on temporal perception and on its underlying mechanism. However, the results have been inconsistent, which could be attributed to the difficulty of controlling physical properties such as hue and luminance within and between studies. Therefore, we conducted a two-interval duration-discrimination task to evaluate the perceived duration of color stimuli under different equiluminant conditions: subjective or pupillary light reflex (PLR)-based equiluminance. The results, based on psychometric functional analyses and simultaneous pupillary recordings, showed that the perceived duration of red was overestimated compared with blue even when the intensity of the stimulus was controlled based on subjective equiluminance (Experiment 1). However, since blue is known to induce a larger PLR than red despite equiluminance, we conducted a controlled study to distinguish the indirect effect of pupillary response to temporal perception. Interestingly, the effect observed in Experiment 1 faded when the luminance levels of the two stimuli were matched based on PLR response (Experiment 2). These results indicate that duration judgement can be affected not only by the hue but also by different equiluminance methods. Furthermore, this causality between the equiluminance method and temporal perception can be explained by the fluctuations in incident light entering the pupil.

Mental rotation with colored cube figures

Men usually outperform women in psychometric mental rotation tests with cube figures. This advantage could be pronounced due to the male stereotyped rotational objects. The present study aims to investigate whether gender differences in favor of men are absent when the stimuli are less male stereotyped. Therefore, 112 participants solved three psychometric mental rotation tests with cube figures colored in pink, blue, and grey. Men outperformed women independent of stimulus color. In the pink and the grey version of the test, participants with beliefs of spatial abilities as masculine performed better than those with feminine beliefs. The mental rotation test performance with pink figures was predicted by gender and gender stereotypes in spatial abilities. In the blue and grey version, gender and self-rated spatial abilities predicted the performance. It can be assumed that the stereotype activation by stimulus color was not sufficient to influence the performance.

Evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of risk communication for maps depicting the hazard of COVID-19

COVID-19 maps convey hazard and risk information to the public, which play an important role in the risk communication for individual protection. The aim of this study is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of communicating the specific risk of COVID-19 maps. By testing 71 subjects from Wuhan, China, this study explored how color schemes (cool, warm, and mixed colors) and data presentation forms (choropleth maps, graduated symbol maps) influence visual cognition patterns, risk perception, comprehension, and subjective satisfaction. The results indicated that the warm scheme (yellow/red) has significant strengths in visual cognition and understanding, and the choropleth map (vs. the graduated symbol map) has significant strengths in risk expression. On subjective satisfaction, the combination of the mixed scheme (blue/yellow/red) and the choropleth map scored highest mean value. These results have implications for enhancing the focused functions of COVID-19 maps that fit different terms: in the early and medium terms of disease transmission, choropleth maps with warm or cool colors should be considered as a priority design for their better risk perception. When the epidemic conditions are on the upturn, a better reading experience combination of choropleth maps with mixed colors can be considered.

Gender and leg-dominance differences in shoe properties and foot injuries in badminton: a cross-sectional survey

Background

While the roles of injury prevention and performance enhancement have increasingly been investigated for badminton footwear, there is a lack of research on gender-specific badminton footwear. The purpose of this study was to examine the gender differences in footwear demands and foot injuries in badminton.

Methods

The study was a cross-sectional survey, in which 326 recreational badminton players were recruited. The questionnaire was divided into four sections enquiring about the characteristics of (1) participant profiles, (2) importance of shoe properties (3) shoe complaints (4) and pain or discomfort in different foot regions. The Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test were performed to determine the differences between genders and the differences between leg dominance, respectively. The significance level was set at 0.05.

Results

Both males and females rated shoe fit as the most important features, followed by the overall comfort and injury protection. Females considered the shoe forefoot cushioning, comfort, breathability and colour as more important compared with the other properties, which showed distinct pattern differences from males. The shoe problem results indicated that plantar pain of the non-dominant foot was considered the most commonly reported footwear problem by both males and females. The problem of excessive arch-support on the dominant and non-dominant sides of male participants was significantly higher than females (p < 0.05). Occasional pain or frequent pain were mainly distributed in the forefoot, followed by the rearfoot and midfoot regions.

Conclusion

There were small differences in footwear demand between the dominant and non-dominant sides, but several differences existed between females and males. The results from gender differences suggested that female shoes prefer a specific shoe last for better fit, rather than a modified version of male shoes. In the future, the design of badminton shoes should consider footwear demands and foot discomfort profiles in respective male and female badminton players.

An Integrative Simulation for Mixing Different Polycarbonate Grades with the Same Color: Experimental Analysis and Evaluations

The processing parameters’ impact such as temperature (Temp.), feed rate (F.R.), and speed (S.) at three distinct grades of the same color was explored in this study. To investigate the effect of the characteristics on color formulations, they were each adjusted to five different levels. For these grades, which were all associated with the same color, an intermeshing twin-screw extruder (TSE) was used. The compounded materials were molded into flat coupons then evaluated with a spectrophotometer for their CIE (L*, a*, b*, and dE*) values. A spectrophotometer was used to determine the color of a compounded plastic batch, which measured three numbers indicating the tristimulus values (CIE L*a*b*). The lightness axis, which ranged from 0 (black) to 100 (white), is known as the L*-axis (white). Redness-greenness and yellowness-blueness were represented by the other two coordinates, a* and b*, respectively. The color difference deviation (Delta E*) from a target was dimensionless, when dE* approached zero. However, the most excellent favorable color difference value occurred and different processing impact factors on polycarbonate grade were investigated. Using the response service design (RSD) software of Stat-Ease Design-Expert® (Minneapolis, MN, USA), historical data were gathered and evaluated. To reduce the value of dE*, the impacts of these processing factors were investigated with the three processing parameters. The whole tristimulus color value could be simulated. Parameters were adjusted on 45 different treatments, using a five-level controlled response method to investigate their impact on color and detect non-optimal responses. The ANOVA for each grade was used to build the predicted regression models. The significant processing parameters were subjected to experimental running to simulate the regression models and achieve the best color, reducing waste.

Color Affects Recognition of Emoticon Expressions

In computer-mediated communication, emoticons are conventionally rendered in yellow. Previous studies demonstrated that colors evoke certain affective meanings, and face color modulates perceived emotion. We investigated whether color variation affects the recognition of emoticon expressions. Japanese participants were presented with emoticons depicting four basic emotions (Happy, Sad, Angry, Surprised) and a Neutral expression, each rendered in eight colors. Four conditions (E1–E4) were employed in the lab-based experiment; E5, with an additional participant sample, was an online replication of the critical E4. In E1, colored emoticons were categorized in a 5AFC task. In E2–E5, stimulus affective meaning was assessed using visual scales with anchors corresponding to each emotion. The conditions varied in stimulus arrays: E2: light gray emoticons; E3: colored circles; E4 and E5: colored emoticons. The affective meaning of Angry and Sad emoticons was found to be stronger when conferred in warm and cool colors, respectively, the pattern highly consistent between E4 and E5. The affective meaning of colored emoticons is regressed to that of achromatic expression counterparts and decontextualized color. The findings provide evidence that affective congruency of the emoticon expression and the color it is rendered in facilitates recognition of the depicted emotion, augmenting the conveyed emotional message.

Context Matters: A Theory of Semantic Discriminability for Perceptual Encoding Systems

People's associations between colors and concepts influence their ability to interpret the meanings of colors in information visualizations. Previous work has suggested such effects are limited to concepts that have strong, specific associations with colors. However, although a concept may not be strongly associated with any colors, its mapping can be disambiguated in the context of other concepts in an encoding system. We articulate this view in semantic discriminability theory, a general framework for understanding conditions determining when people can infer meaning from perceptual features. Semantic discriminability is the degree to which observers can infer a unique mapping between visual features and concepts. Semantic discriminability theory posits that the capacity for semantic discriminability for a set of concepts is constrained by the difference between the feature-concept association distributions across the concepts in the set. We define formal properties of this theory and test its implications in two experiments. The results show that the capacity to produce semantically discriminable colors for sets of concepts was indeed constrained by the statistical distance between color-concept association distributions (Experiment 1). Moreover, people could interpret meanings of colors in bar graphs insofar as the colors were semantically discriminable, even for concepts previously considered "non-colorable" (Experiment 2). The results suggest that colors are more robust for visual communication than previously thought.

When Taekwondo Referees See Red, but It Is an Electronic System That Gives the Points

Previous studies in taekwondo have considered the use of the manual scoring system or the electronic system with only the use of the electronic body protector. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between the color protectors and success in 1,327 taekwondo matches from six World Grand Prix Series of two 4-year Olympic periods when electronic body and head protectors are used. In the total sample, the results did not show a relationship between the match outcome and the color of the protectors (p = 0.97, C = 0.001). For the individual six editions, the results showed a positive and strong relationship between wearing blue protectors and winning matches and one between wearing red protectors and winning matches (p = 0.001, C = 0.19; p = 0.001; C = 0.19). Regarding the weight categories, 8 and 5 of 48 showed higher percentages of blue and red winners, respectively. Regarding sex, male competitors showed a positive relationship between blue color and winning the match in 6 of 24 weight categories, and wearing red and winning the match was shown in 2 of 24 weight categories. Female competitors showed a positive relationship between blue color and winning the match in 2 of 24 weight categories, and wearing red and winning the match was shown in 3 of 24 weight categories. When it comes to the influence of being a seeded athlete, the results did show a significant confounding effect on the color of the protectors worn by the winner of the match in 2 of 13 weight categories in which a color effect was observed (p = 0.02, C = 0.28; p = 0.02, C = 0.28). In conclusion, wearing red does not provide a higher chance of winning the match. It seems that seeing red has a stronger effect than wearing red, especially in male contenders. Moreover, being a seeded athlete does not explain the result of the match. It seems that the introduction of the electronic helmet protector, in addition to the electronic body protector, made the scoring system more objective, decreasing the advantage of wearing red in winning matches.

Is the Suppression Effect of the Color Red on Snack Food Consumption Reliable?

Two articles hypothesized that exposure to the color red would induce a state of avoidance motivation and reported that snack food consumption was decreased when the food was served on red plates, relative to white and blue plates. The current experiment combined their procedures and approximately tripled their group sizes. Participants were provided with pretzels on red, white, or blue plates in a mock sensory analysis task. The results indicated that more pretzels were consumed when presented on red plates, in direct contradiction of previous results. Alternative explanations, such as group differences in hunger or preference for pretzels, could not account for the results. The facilitation effect of red indicates that the color red does not always reduce snack food consumption and suggests that the reported inhibitory effect of red on snack consumption may not be reliable.

Brain response to color stimuli: an EEG study with nonlinear approach

Color perception is a major guiding factor in the evolutionary process of human civilization, but most of the neurological background of the same are yet unknown. This work attempts to address this area with an EEG based neuro-cognitive study on response of brain to different color stimuli. With respect to a Grey baseline seven colors of the VIBGYOR were shown to 16 participants with normal color vision and corresponding EEG signals from different lobes (Frontal, Occipital & Parietal) were recorded. In an attempt to quantify the brain response while watching these colors, the corresponding EEG signals were analysed using two of the latest state of the art non-linear techniques (MFDFA and MFDXA) of dealing complex time series. MFDFA revealed that for all the participants the spectral width, and hence the complexity of the EEG signals, reaches a maximum while viewing color Blue, followed by colors Red and Green in all the brain lobes. MFDXA, on the other hand, suggests a lower degree of inter and intra lobe correlation while watching the VIBGYOR colors compared to baseline Grey, hinting towards a post processing of visual information. We hope that along with the novelty of methodologies, the unique outcomes of this study may leave a long term impact in the domain of color perception research.

Effect of warm/cool white lights on visual perception and mood in warm/cool color environments

Color and light are two ambient attributes for interior spaces that can be used in the design and modification of workspaces. The visual and psychological effects of color and light of each have been studied separately and widely. The aim of this study was to investigate the simultaneous effects of warm/cool white light on visual perception and mood in a simulated colored workspace. Thirty-three healthy male participants were recruited. They were asked to judge the visual perception and mood of three types of workspace that were designed by colors of white, red, blue, and lights of a cool and warm white in the random six sessions. The participants have experienced higher levels of tension, anger, depression, anxiety and lower levels of visual comfort, attractiveness, brightness and calmness of environment in the red condition than to white in both state of light. The blue wall reduced brightness and increased attractiveness of environment compared to white wall. Cool white light reduced the warmth of color and increased brightness in all three color environments compared to warm light. The preference for cool or warm light depends on the color of the environment's indoor surface. It seems that the combination of the white color and warm light or the blue color with cool light has a more favorable effect on visual perception and people's mood in workplaces.

How Can Flowers and Their Colors Promote Individuals' Physiological and Psychological States during the COVID-19 Lockdown?

The global spread of COVID-19 has disrupted the normality of people’s daily lives, leading the population to social distancing and isolation. The closure of green areas also affected the well-being of the individual during the COVID-19 pandemic. Viewing flowers is expected to have similar positive effects to viewing natural scenery. Therefore, this study investigates how white, red, and yellow flower colors affect individuals’ psychological and physiological well-being. The experiment was conducted in an office-like setting with 50 participants. Participants looked at each flower color for 3 min. Electroencephalograms (EEGs), heart rate variability, and skin conductivity were measured to evaluate physiological responses along with both the semantic differential questionnaire (SD) and the Profile of Mood States (POMS) to assess psychological responses. EEGs showed that the mean values of alpha relative power in the prefrontal lobe were significantly higher when viewing yellow and red flowers vs. white flowers. Furthermore, heart rate variability revealed that viewing yellow and red flowers increased parasympathetic nerve activity significantly. After viewing the yellow and red flowers, the average results for each subscale of the POMS questionnaire improved. The vigor (V) subscale and overall mood status values were significantly improved. The results of the SD method revealed that viewing yellow and red flowers resulted in a significantly higher sense of relaxation, cheerfulness, and comfort than viewing white flowers.

Effects of diet and fitness apps on eating disorder behaviours: qualitative study

Background

Diet and fitness apps are often promoted in university and college settings and touted as a means to improve health with little attention given to unanticipated negative effects, especially among those at risk for or with eating disorders.

Aims

Few researchers have studied how these apps affect women with eating disorders in university and college settings. This research investigates the unintended negative consequences of engaging with these tools.

Method

Data collection sessions comprised three components conducted with 24 participants: survey (demographic and eating disorder symptoms), think-aloud exercise and semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data.

Results

Participants reported that diet and fitness apps trigger and exacerbate symptoms by focusing heavily on quantification, promoting overuse and providing certain types of feedback. Eight themes of negative consequences emerged: fixation on numbers, rigid diet, obsession, app dependency, high sense of achievement, extreme negative emotions, motivation from ‘negative’ messages, and excess competition. Although these themes were common when users’ focus was to lose weight or eat less, they were also prevalent when users wanted to focus explicitly on eating disorder recovery.

Conclusions

Unintended negative consequences are linked to the quantified self movement, conception of appropriate usage, and visual cues and feedback. This paper critically examines diet and fitness app design and discusses implications for designers, educators and clinicians. Ultimately, this research emphasises the need for a fundamental shift in how diet and fitness apps promote health, with mental health at the forefront.

Electroencephalogram Application for the Analysis of Stress Relief in the Seasonal Landscape

This study proposes an integrated approach to assess the psychological and physiological responses of people in natural seasonal landscapes. The questionnaire of restoration outcomes scale (ROS), willingness to visit (WTV), cultural ecosystem services (CES) cognitive classification, and the neuroscientific technique based on electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements were applied. The effects of different landscapes on human perception were studied by comparing the EEG data of different landscape types and different seasons. The coupling relationship between EEG data and stress recovery was also examined. The results showed the following: First, there was a significant difference between the winter landscape and the summer natural landscape. Second, only the winter landscape showed significant gender differences. Third, the values of ROS and WTV in the summer landscape were greater than those in the winter landscape. Fourth, the number of CES in the summer landscape was significantly higher than that in the winter landscape, and the number of CES in water was higher than that in the forest and grassland. Thus, brain wave data and quantified values from questionnaires including ROS, WTV, and CES showed significant seasonality. Therefore, an EEG can be used as a new, more objective tool and method for landscape evaluation and planning in the future.

In Colore Veritas? Color effects on the speed and accuracy of true/false responses

In addition to their perceptual or aesthetic function, colors often carry conceptual meaning. In quizzes, for instance, true and false answers are typically marked in green and red. In three experiments, we used a Stroop task to investigate automatic green-true associations and red-false associations, respectively. In Experiments 1 and 2, stimuli were true statements (e.g., “tables are furniture”) and false statements (e.g., “bananas are buildings”) that were displayed in different combination of green, red, and gray depending on the experimental condition. In Experiment 3, we used true-related and false-related words shown in green, red, or gray. Participants had to indicate the validity (or semantic meaning) of each statement (or word) as fast and as accurately as possible. We expected that participants would perform best when they had to categorize green stimuli as “true” and red stimuli as “false”. The prediction was only confirmed when green and red stimuli were presented within the same context (i.e., same experimental condition). This finding supports the dimension-specificity hypothesis which states that cross-modal associations (here: associations between color and validity) depend on the context (here: the color-context). Moreover, the observed color-validity effects were stronger when participants had to categorize single words instead of sentences and when they had to provide speeded responses. Taken together, these results suggest that controlled processing counteracts the influence of automatic color associations on true/false responses.

The Function of Color and Structure Based on EEG Features in Landscape Recognition

Both color and structure make important contributions to human visual perception, as well as the evaluation of landscape quality and landscape aesthetics. The EEG equipment liveamp32 was used to record the EEG signals of humans when viewing landscape images, structure images with filtered color, and color images with a filtered structure. The results show that the SVM classifier was the most suitable classifier for landscape classification based on EEG features. The classification accuracy of the landscape picture recognition was up to 98.3% when using beta waves, while the accuracy of the color recognition was 97.5%, and that of the structure recognition was 93.9% when using gamma waves. Secondly, color and structure played a major role in determining the alpha and gamma wave responses, respectively, for all the landscape types, including forest, desert, and water. Furthermore, structure only played a decisive role in forest, while color played a major role in desert and water when using beta waves. Lastly, statistically significant differences between landscape groups and scenario groups with regard to alpha, beta, and gamma rhythms in brain waves were confirmed. The reasonable usage and layout of structure and color will have a very important guiding value for landscape aesthetics in future landscape design and landscape planning.

Expressive suppression to pain in others reduces negative emotion but not vicarious pain in the observer

Although there are situations where it may be appropriate to reduce one's emotional response to the pain of others, the impact of an observer's emotional expressivity on their response to pain in others is still not well understood. In the present study, we examined how the emotion regulation strategy expressive suppression influences responses to pain in others. Based on prior research findings on expressive suppression and pain empathy, we hypothesized that expressive suppression to pain expression faces would reduce neural representations of negative emotion, vicarious pain, or both. To test this, we applied two multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA)-derived neural signatures to our data, the Picture Induced Negative Emotion Signature (PINES; Chang, Gianaros, Manuck, Krishnan, and Wager (2015)) and a neural signature of facial expression induced vicarious pain (Zhou et al., 2020). In a sample of 60 healthy individuals, we found that viewing pain expression faces increased neural representations of negative emotion and vicarious pain. However, expressive suppression to pain faces reduced neural representations of negative emotion only. Providing support for a connection between neural representations of negative emotion and pain empathy, PINES responses to pain faces were associated with participants' trait-level empathy and the perceived unpleasantness of pain faces. Findings suggest that a consequence of suppressing one's facial expressions in response to the pain of others may be a reduction in the affective aspect of empathy but not the experience of vicarious pain itself.

Aroused and Impulsive Effects of Colour Stimuli on Lateral and Logical Abilities

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of environmental colour on people’s lateral and logical abilities. This was done by evaluating study participants’ response time and error rate when completing six types of psychometric tests that were performed in various hue backgrounds on a computer. To maximise the colour stimulation provided by the monitor, the experiment was carried out in a dark laboratory. Analysis of participants’ response time and error rate showed that different colours could significantly influence arousal and impulsiveness, which suggests that colour has indirect impacts on cognitive abilities. Further analysis revealed that different colours had various effects depending on the type of psychometric test given. These findings suggest that future research on environmental design should consider how to effectively use colour to impact people’s performance and behaviour.

The Influence of Regulatory Focus on Media Choice in Interpersonal Conflicts

People’s choices of (electronic) communication channels are central to the quality of communication—and sometimes detrimental to their actual communication goals. However, while factors influencing media choice are abundant, potential means to intentionally influence these choices are scarce within computer-mediated communication research. We explore the role of regulatory focus as one possible factor to understand and influence media choice in interpersonal conflicts. Regulatory focus theory proposes two motivational systems, promotion (i.e., needs for nurturance and growth) and prevention (i.e., needs for safety and security), that account for differences in preferred strategies for goal-pursuit. In a vignette-based study, we manipulated the situational regulatory focus (promotion or prevention) and surveyed participants’ preferred media choice for a hypothetical conflict scenario. Our results show that the induction of a dominant prevention focus (vs. promotion focus) leads to a shift in preference towards leaner communication media and channels that establish a higher subjective buffer between sender and receiver (e.g., text-messaging over calling). We elaborate on how these findings contribute to the understanding of media choice in interpersonal conflicts and point out potential ways to influence behavior through the design of communication technologies. Limitations of the present study and future research opportunities are discussed.

Color-hierarchies in executive control of monkeys' behavior

Processing advantages for particular colors (color-hierarchies) influence emotional regulation and cognitive functions in humans and manifest as an advantage of the red color, compared with the green color, in triggering response inhibition but not in response execution. It remains unknown how such color-hierarchies emerge in human cognition and whether they are the unique properties of human brain with advanced trichromatic vision. Dominant models propose that color-hierarchies are formed as experience-dependent learning that associates various colors with different human-made conventions and concepts (e.g., traffic lights). We hypothesized that if color-hierarchies modulate cognitive functions in trichromatic nonhuman primates, it would indicate a preserved neurobiological basis for such color-hierarchies. We trained six macaque monkeys to perform cognitive tasks that required behavioral control based on colored cues. Color-hierarchies significantly influenced monkeys' behavior and appeared as an advantage of the red color, compared to the green, in triggering response inhibition but not response execution. For all monkeys, the order of color-hierarchies, in response inhibition and also execution, was similar to that in humans. In addition, the cognitive effects of color-hierarchies were not limited to the trial in which the colored cues were encountered but also persisted in the following trials in which there was no colored cue on the visual scene. These findings suggest that color-hierarchies are not resulting from association of colors with human-made conventions and that simple processing advantage in retina or early visual pathways does not explain the cognitive effects of color-hierarchies. The discovery of color-hierarchies in cognitive repertoire of monkeys indicates that although the evolution of humans and monkeys diverged in about 25 million years ago, the color-hierarchies are evolutionary preserved, with the same order, in trichromatic primates and exert overarching effects on the executive control of behavior.

The Maze Test: A Computer Tool for Testing Perseverance

INTRODUCTION

Perseverance is an important component of human functioning. The main factors that allow people to achieve their goals are perseverance and the motivation for change. The concept of perseverance is not new, but most studies in this field do not define it precisely. Perseverance is a formal trait of behaviour determined by situational (external) and personality-related (internal) factors - a complexity which can cause problems when one tries to measure it.

METHODS

In this project, we present the Maze Test, a novel tool for testing perseverance. We discuss the theoretical foundations of the test, including the definition of perseverance, as well as the indicators on which this tool is based. We present the basic methodological properties of the test and report two studies which illustrate how it can be applied in practice: Study 1 - measurement of personality-conditioned perseverance, and Study 2 - measurement of situation-conditioned perseverance.

RESULTS

In Study 1, a significant weak correlation between the indicators of perseverance and the Big Five model personality traits was discovered. Neuroticism correlated negatively with the number of maze tasks solved and the Synthetic Indicator of Perseverance. Positive correlations were found for conscientiousness and agreeableness. In Study 2, mental simulations were observed to have a medium to high effect on the indicators of perseverance.

CONCLUSION

The tool presented in this study affords a new approach to perseverance. Based on an analysis of how the tasks were being solved by the subjects, we developed perseverance indicators which allow to view perseverance as a multidimensional construct. The tool has been designed for use in both laboratory tests and remote web tests. A major advantage of the tool is that it is available for general use free of charge.