Back in 1976, Farley and Grant conducted experiments on the influence of colour on attention and found that coloured multimedia presentations resulted in better attention and memory performance ( 13). In fact, research has shown that vivid colour cues can help to enhance the shortterm memory performance of Alzheimer Disease patients ( 12).Ī plethora of studies have been conducted to understand the role of colour in enhancing memory performance. Thus, the use of colours to improve the memory performance of Alzheimer Disease patients can be practised. Recently, there is a growing interest in the role of the non-biological or environmental factors associated with Alzheimer Disease ( 11). Alzheimer Disease is a neurodegenerative form of dementia which deteriorates memory abilities ( 10). Colour is also used to treat patients with Alzheimer Disease. An improvement of reading speed up to 35% was reported for autistic patients reading using a coloured overlay compared to autistic patients reading without using a coloured overlay ( 9). The same approach is also used to help autistic patients. Clinical intervention for patients with dyslexia using colour have been proven to be effective in reducing patient difficulties in reading ( 8). With the use of colour in the intervention, it can help patients to follow and understand the learning program better. In addition, in the clinical setting, specific interventions involving colours can be introduced to deal with memory-related problems such as learning difficulty, autism, dyslexia, and others. There need to be strategies to facilitate the learning process and colours can play a role in motivating students to learn and profit from their educational experiences. The cognitive abilities of the students refer to the way the students perceive, pay attention, remember, think, and understand the lessons. The extent to which students utilize their cognitive abilities is also important and may contribute to better academic achievement ( 7). In the educational setting, higher demand is put on excellent academic achievement. This shows the importance of colour in making the information or message more attractive to the public. According to White ( 6), coloured advertisements can attract people to read the advertisement up to 42% more often than the non-coloured advertisement. Most advertisements use colour as one of the important element in influencing people’s attention, attitude towards the product, and pressuring decision making ( 5). For instance, a marketing study has found that colour can increase brand recognition by up to 80% ( 4). Colour can be very effective in learning and educational setting, marketing, communication, or even sport. It functions as a powerful information channel to the human cognitive system and has been found to play a significant role in enhancing memory performance ( 3). Many variables have been proposed to contribute to the retrieval operations and one of the variables is colour, which will be discussed thoroughly in the present paper.Ĭolour is believed to be the most important visual experience to human beings ( 2). One of the most interesting and challenging questions in contemporary memory research is on ways to enhance human memory performance. How the human cognitive system deals with the memorization process remains the centre of research among cognitive psychologists. Memory refers to the mental process of encoding, retaining, and retrieving environmental information ( 1).
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