A comparison of the effects of correlated colour temperature and gender on cognitive task performance. (November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hartstein, LE; Durniak, MT; Karlicek, RF; Berthier, NE
• Is Part Of: Lighting research & technology. Volume 50:Number 7(2018)
• Page Start: 1057
• Page End: 1069
• Publication Date: 2018-11
• Subjects: Lighting -- Periodicals; 621.32
• DOI: 10.1177/1477153517721728
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1477-1535

Abstract

Higher correlated colour temperature ambient lighting, which contains more blue light, has been reported to improve performance on a variety of cognitive tasks. The current investigation compared performance of adults on what/where task switching, go/no-go, and mental rotation tasks when the experimental room was lit by 3500 K standard florescent and 5000 K LED lighting. Results showed that, under higher correlated colour temperature illumination, females (but not males) decreased reaction time by approximately 10% on the task switching task, that males (but not females) showed a reaction time decrease on the go/no-go tasks, and that no effect was observed on the mental rotation task. Our results suggest that higher correlated colour temperature illumination improves reaction time performance on certain attention/executive function tasks, but that that improvement is gender specific.