Every parent, teacher, or education professional, seems to be
concerned with how to make their children happier, more creative, and
smarter these days. Research into how the brains of children and
adolescents develop is commonplace. The recent research into how the
brains of children are affected by the lighting they study and perform
under is just one of the latest efforts into understanding.
The Study
Researchers
at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South
Korea investigated the effect that various forms of lighting can have
upon studying skills and general exam performance. They found that one
kind of lighting in particular had a significantly positive effect in
improving exam performance and memory, as reported in the journal Optics Express.
The
team investigated the effect that having ‘color temperatures’ in the
separate lighting conditions has in performance between the two groups.
One ‘temperature colour’ was 3500 K (a warm yellow-white colour), while
another was a much cooler 6500 K (blue-white, akin to natural sunlight),
and another was a standard fluorescent light set up to serve as the
control group for the experiment.
The Results
When
researchers examined the three test groups, they found that students
performed the best in terms of academic performance under the 6500 K
lighting condition. However, the 3500 K lighting condition also proved
to be useful and helped facilitate the encouragement of relaxation and
recess activities, suggesting that dynamic lighting systems could have a
multitude of benefits for students. “The preliminary study and the
field experiment fully supported a positive effect of 6500 K lighting on
academic performance and 3500 K lighting on encouraging recess
activities,” Kyungah Choi, a PhD candidate at the institute (as well
as the lead author and researcher on the study), reported in a
statement.
Dr Hyeon-Jeong Suk, an associate professor at the university and co-author of the research study, commented that, “We
were surprised by the fact that besides observing the performance
improvement during the mathematical test, the interview results with
young children — who have almost no background knowledge on lighting —
were also in line with our empirical results. This shows that the effect
of lighting was direct and intuitive and that anyone, regardless of age
or level of knowledge, could experience and be aware.”
The Implications
The implications for this study
have a significant field of interest – not only for teaching
classrooms, but also for offices and other spaces where a boost in
concentration could be beneficial, and where the 6500 K lighting
condition could be implemented. Alternatively, Suk expanded upon the
implications and potential applications of the results of the
study, “Although the current research has mainly focused on the
educational sector, dynamic lighting, as previously mentioned, can be
employed to positively enhance users’ mood, well-being, and their
health,”
The idea of using lighting as a way to enhance and
promote positive behaviors ties in strongly to years of previous
research indicating that changing the variables inside a subject’s
physical environment can bring about positive well-being changes. The
most famous example of this is research which found that painting the
walls of jail cells and prisons (areas with a higher than average rate
of violence) the exact shade of pink that matches Pepto-Bismol,
significantly calmed down inmates and cut down on rates of violent
activity.
Whether or not this research could be rolled out across a
larger scale, or with a larger study remains to be seen, but the
implications are positive, particularly in a culture that is extolling
the virtues of a healthy physical and emotional well-being. The results
also indicate the possibility of boosting brainpower and productivity.
As Sun aptly commented, “Lighting, compared to numerous other facility
investments to enhance such physical and mental states of humans, is
highly effective in a sense that it could produce a dramatic effect with
slight change.”
