title: The effect of colour on children's cognitive performance.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The presence of red appears to hamper adults' cognitive performance relative to other colours (see Elliot & Maier, 2014, Ann. Rev. Psychol. 65, 95).
  Here, we investigate whether colour affects cognitive performance in 8- and 9-year-olds.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children completed a battery of tasks once in the presence of a coloured screen that was one of eight colours and once in the presence of a grey screen. Performance was assessed for each colour relative to the grey baseline, and differences across colours were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We find a significant difference in performance across colours, with significantly worse performance in the presence of red than grey. The effect of colour did not significantly interact with task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that colour can affect children's cognitive performance and that there is a detrimental effect of red. Findings are related to the adult literature and implications for educational contexts are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of Sussex, UK.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brooker
authors.affiliation: University of Sussex, UK.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Franklin
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003116:Color; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: cognition; colour; creativity; environment; learning