Reaction Times to Recognize Different Tonalities of Colours: Cross-sectional Study

Colors have a great influence on the state of mind and psyche of the human being, and since humans are in close relation to the colors, the colors are very important. Colors play an active and effective role in everyday life. Therefore, they are the most important visual elements that have emotional and psychological burden. Colors allow people to understand the environment, acquire information and orientate and interact more with the environment. One of main factors affecting the success rate in computer games is the short enough reaction time to the stimulus. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the reaction time in young people to different tonalities of the four main colors in psychology.

The sample consisted of 60 female students from Tabriz Islamic Art University, faculty of multimedia, who volunteered to participate in the study. Reaction times to different colors were measured in 20 randomized trials with five different tonalities of the four main psychology colors (blue, green, yellow, and red). Data analysis was performed by repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test.

The least mean color reaction time was recorded for blue, which was significantly different from other colors (P (0.002). In general, the mean color recognition time between females was reported longer than males, and this difference was not statistically significant.

The reaction time in young people was the least for blue and the most for yellow. Therefore, using blue in danger signs may causes the viewer to react faster and reduce the risk of injury