This paper describes two experiments conducted to further investigate the effects
of color on cognition. Together, the experiments attempted to parse the previously
observed effects of color. Experiment 1 separated effects on cognitive discrimination,
that is, the ability to recognize previously learned words, and response bias, the tendency
to say that test words were previously learned. Participants performed tasks where they
studied a list of words and then were asked to indicate whether each word was old or new
within a set of words. The participants were randomly assigned to a word valence
condition: pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. All participants performed three conditions
based on color: red, blue, and white. The primary hypothesis was that color would have
an effect on both the discrimination of old words from new words and the response bias.
If red evokes the avoidance motivation then the participant would be more detail oriented
so would have a higher rate of accuracy in distinguishing old and new words compared to
the white and the blue conditions. If blue evokes the approach motivation then the
participant would be more open to creative thinking and liberal so would be more biased
to saying a word is old compared to the white and the red conditions.