TYPE
Original Research
01 December 2022
10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938636
PUBLISHED
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
EDITED BY
Bernardo Hernández,
University of La Laguna, Spain
Effects of colored lights on an
individual’s affective impressions
in the observation process
REVIEWED BY
Mohamed Elsadek,
Tongji University, China
César O. Tapia-Fonllem,
University of Sonora, Mexico
Xing Xie1 , Jun Cai1,2*, Hai Fang1 , Xiaoying Tang1 and
Toshimasa Yamanaka3*
1
*CORRESPONDENCE
Jun Cai
caijun@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
Toshimasa Yamanaka
tyam@geijutsu.tsukuba.ac.jp
SPECIALTY SECTION
This article was submitted to
Environmental Psychology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
07 May 2022
07 November 2022
PUBLISHED 01 December 2022
RECEIVED
ACCEPTED
CITATION
Xie X, Cai J, Fang H, Tang X and
Yamanaka T (2022) Effects of colored
lights on an individual’s affective
impressions in the observation
process. Front. Psychol. 13:938636.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938636
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© 2022 Xie, Cai, Fang, Tang and
Yamanaka. This is an open-access
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author(s) and the copyright owner(s)
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practice. No use, distribution or
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not comply with these terms.
School of Art and Design, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, 2 Academy of
Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 3 Faculty of Art and Design, Tsukuba University,
Tsukuba, Japan
The lighting environment has an important influence on the psychological and
physical aspects of a person. On certain occasions, reasonable lighting design
can regulate people’s emotions and improve their feelings of comfort in a
space. Besides, specific lighting can create a specific atmosphere according
to space requirements. However, in the study of an individual’s affective
impressions, there is still some uncertainty about how colored lights affect
an individual’s moods and impressions toward visual objects. This research
improves the understanding of the emotional impact of colored light in space.
To better understand the lighting environment in the observation process, the
project studied the effects of four groups of lights (green, blue, red, and yellow)
on the participants’ moods and impressions. Participants watched two sets of
visual images under four different lighting conditions and provided feedback on
their emotions and evaluations through the Multiple Mood States Scale, TwoDimensional Mood Scale, and Semantic Differential Scale. The results show
that different colors of light have a significant effect on mood, and red light
can arouse emotional changes to calm, irritated, relaxed, nervous, stability, and
pleasure. At the same time, different colors of light have a certain relevance
to participants’ impressions and this provides further research value for the
design of the colored light environment in an individual’s affective impressions.
Therefore, this study discusses the feasibility of colored lights as a display
method, which has potential application prospects for constructing different
space atmospheres.
KEYWORDS
color, lighting, mood, impressions, emotional experience
Introduction
The process of observing a visual object occurs in various display spaces in our
daily life, such as people observing graphics, images, and objects that can be seen
everywhere, as well as observing scenes in movies and games (Castelhano and Krzyś,
2020). This kind of display space is not limited to museums and art galleries, and
is found even in shopping centers, homes, laboratories, or entertainment spaces.
Moreover, with the development of human–computer interactions, the metaverse,
and other technologies into all aspects of our lives, display space involves not only
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As far as the best LED lighting parameters are concerned,
research shows that “visibility” and “warmth” (texture) are two
factors of perception toward paintings; for the main factor of
“visibility,” observers prefer the correlated color temperature
(CCT) to be at about 3500K (Zhai et al., 2016). Research on
the stability of pigments indicates that certain colorants are
more vulnerable to degradation when exposed to LED lighting
(Richardson et al., 2020). In addition, research on visitors’
emotional experience shows that upon performing actual tests
under gallery conditions, changing the lighting will not make a
noticeable difference when there is an opportunity to personally
choose the lighting; the average CCT chosen is 3777K (Pelowski
et al., 2019). Since the invention and innovation of different
light sources have a major impact on people’s lifestyles and
behaviors, research on the influence of colored lights on people’s
mood has also received increasing attention (Kurt and Osueke,
2014; McDonald et al., 2022). The results show that colored
lights can make an entire space more comfortable and relaxing
in many specific environments, such as the home (Figueiro
et al., 2015), office (Hubalek et al., 2010; Figueiro and Rea,
2016), and hospital (Zraati, 2012); emotions will further affect
people’s perception, cognition, coping, and creativity (Izard,
1993). From the theoretical perspective of light research, de Kort
(2019) summarized the theoretical structure of pathways of light
relevant to psychological functioning, with the aim of informing
future lighting research. At the same time, she emphasized
the importance of various light effects and the significance of
choosing the best lighting design parameters. Therefore, the
research on various light effects in the display space, especially
the research on colored lights, needs to be supplemented.
How individuals can understand visual objects is a core
topic in display space (Kim and Lee, 2016). On the one hand,
the color of visual objects can have a significant impact on
human expression and emotions, for example, comparing white
flowers and red flowers; viewing yellow flowers is more relaxing
(Xie et al., 2021). In the display space, dark green and red
plants are more suitable for children’s areas to improve the
energy of visitors, and green-yellow and bright green plants
are more likely to attract attention (Elsadek et al., 2017). On
the other hand, as Hurlbert and Cuttle (2020) mentioned,
there should be a richer understanding of how light affects
an individual’s impressions of seeing and feeling, and how to
use lighting to enhance the expression of visual objects to
enrich their emotional experience. An individual’s impressions
of visual objects, including attention, perception, appreciation,
and imagination, can be a creative process and can be interpreted
as an independent entity that is separated from the designer
(Leder et al., 2004). Using light intervention, an individual’s
impressions may be affected in many ways. Different lighting
arrangements, light source colors, and CCTs can be used to
enhance the impressions of the entire space, such as the clarity,
spaciousness, relaxation, privacy, pleasantness, and order (Flynn
et al., 1973; Flynn and Spencer, 1977; Durak et al., 2007; Li et al.,
the observation of these visual objects in the real space
environment, but also the virtual environment and even the
combination of them (Song and Yamada, 2019). An important
part of this observation process is an individual’s experience
in the space. An individual’s experience is influenced by
various sensory factors. Research suggests that an individual’s
experience will be affected by factors such as labels, the way
of hanging/display, and illumination (Pelowski et al., 2017).
The visual effect of illumination is an important factor to be
taken into account in the selection of lighting in a space, which
can guide visual attention and provide color and rendering
scenarios for the environment (David et al., 2019). The artistic
expression of lighting is inherently diverse, and the fusion
between it and the expression of visual objects is an interesting
part of art communication (Schielke, 2020). Recently, with the
development of digital technology, colored lights have been
widely used to improve the emotional experience of individuals
in space (Lee and Lee, 2022). As we value the storytelling
and immersive experience of display space, it is particularly
important to understand the role of design elements in the
space, especially illumination since this is considered to be one
of the most complex design elements that combines technology,
perception, and appreciation (Kuijsters et al., 2015).
The design of illumination in space has a certain universality,
but it is unique due to the different interrelationships among
lighting, people, visual objects, and space needs (Lee, 2019).
Therefore, to provide a high-quality emotional experience as the
display space needs, an abstract study of lighting, individuals,
visual objects, and space atmosphere is particularly important.
A common field of research related to lighting and
display space is museum research. Museum exhibitions have
stricter requirements for lighting to avoid damage to artworks
(Hurlbert and Cuttle, 2020). Art exhibitions are more innovative
in lighting applications, creating better visual experiences.
Choosing the illumination of visual objects is generally
determined by designers or curators, and they are of a personal
nature in many cases (Pridmore, 2017; Pelowski et al., 2019).
Another more empirical criterion is that visual preferences
can be expressed by observers based on strictly controlled
experiments (Nascimento and Masuda, 2014). Early research
on the preferences of visual objects was primarily based on
daylight illumination, because natural daylight, incandescent
spotlights, or a combination of both was commonly used in
exhibitions and was considered to be the best suitable lighting
for color rendering (Pinto et al., 2008; Smet et al., 2011).
Recently, with the development and popularization of energyefficient solid-state lighting sources, researchers have considered
other sources, such as LEDs (light-emitting diodes), and have
discussed many aspects. In terms of the feasibility of white
LED lighting, by the design of triband white-light LED lighting,
similar luminous efficacies with similar products can be achieved
in a continuous spectrum that does not emit UV (ultraviolet)
or IR (infrared radiation), protecting artworks (Berns, 2011).
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analysis, implicit memory integration, explicit classification,
cognitive mastering, and evaluation. In this work, we focus
on factors for the lighting environment, objects, and visitors
that influence the processing stages in a specific experimental
design. The specific experimental controls are as follows: for
the lighting environment factor, control the color of light,
illumination, CCT, and lighting position; for the visual objects
factor, control of the arrangements, type, content, and color;
for the individual factor, control of the gender, age, major, and
experience. At the same time, we believe that the potential
impact of mood and impression factors on the processing
stages could be different: (1) pre-classification, during which
the mood of the individuals will be affected by the preexisting mood state, and the impressions toward the artwork
which will be affected by the most intuitive visual factors (e.g.,
arrangement, style, and color); (2) perceptual analysis, which
includes first impressions that are influenced by simple features
(e.g., color, clarity, and simple content), and mood generated by
the influence of light and visual objects; (3) implicit memory
integration, which is affected by personal experiences (including
the mood state of memory and the contrast or explanation
of past experiences) of moods and impressions; (4) explicit
classification, which involves modifying mood through deep
feelings (e.g., beauty, fun, and more details); (5) cognitive
mastering, based on independent perspectives generated by
personal emotional fusion combined with specific types of mood
as well as impressions from different levels of understanding
and imagination; (6) evaluation, meaning that individuals will
evaluate their emotional and cognitive states in some way, and
will stop processing information when they are satisfied. This is
reflected in regulation and changes in mood at this stage, as well
as personal expression of the meaning of the artwork. In general,
the stimulation of these factors will awaken the information
processing of implicit memory and explicit knowledge, and
will thus produce an interpretation of emotion and cognition.
Therefore, it is important to understand what kind of moods and
impressions are evoked and, through evaluation, to understand
the mechanisms of aesthetic experience.
To study the effects of colored light on the individual’s
moods and impressions, we designed two experiments, using
the same laboratory environment and participant selection
methods. In this laboratory setting, four colored light conditions
(green, blue, red, and yellow) and two types of visual objects
(realistic and abstract images) were regulated. In terms of
measurement methods, considering that the emotional state is
a dynamic changing process, we used two kinds of emotional
scales to obtain emotional state data. The first experiment used
a Multiple Mood States Scale (Terasaki et al., 1992), which
can reflect the current mood state; the second experiment
used a Two-Dimensional Mood Scale (TDMS) (Sakairi et al.,
2013), which defines the momentary mood state through
comparison of pre- and post-intervention. The purpose was to
find a better way to judge the mood state in visual processing
2021). Also, lighting can affect people’s impressions of paintings.
The CCT will affect an individual’s overall appreciation of the
arrangement, whereas the overall hue of paintings and the
background lightness have little effect (Feltrin et al., 2020).
Studies have also discussed the interaction between the colors
of visual objects and lighting. For example, participants were
invited to view impressionist paintings under different CCT
lighting conditions. The main colors of these paintings were
red, blue, green, and yellow. The experiment evaluated the
individual’s impressions of the paintings’ colors, vividness,
brightness, attractiveness, background color, and arrangement.
The results show that, regardless of the main color tone of
the artwork, a series of preference trends indicate that the
perceived warmth and brightness decrease with an increase in
the CCT (Feltrin et al., 2017). Besides, studies have pointed
out that an individual’s attention to visual objects will depend
on whether they have an artistic background (O’hare, 1976).
In addition, with the popularity of colored indoor lighting, the
impact of people observing visual objects in a colored light
environment needs to be further studied. Zraati (2012) focused
on the psychological and physical effects of color and mentioned
that in the follow-up research, the relationships between objects
and colors in the waiting area will be explored. Sokolova and
Fernández-Caballero (2015) discussed the combination of light
and color for effective computing, and proposed that people
of different ages and countries may respond differently when
exposed to combinations of light and color. However, there
is still not enough evidence to prove the relationship between
colored lights and an individual’s impressions toward visual
objects, and whether colored lights can arouse different moods
and impressions requires more in-depth research.
The major purpose of this study is the exploration of
more display methods and values as a means to awaken an
individual’s affective and cognitive states in a display space. In
particular, previous studies did not attempt to jointly measure
the relationships between colored light, mood, and impressions.
It should be meaningful to use colored light as a display method
in the sense of constructing different space atmospheres.
Conceptual framework and
hypotheses development
To discuss the relationship between colored light and
individuals, we adopted a Model of Art Processing (Leder
et al., 2004; Leder and Nadal, 2014; Pelowski et al., 2017;
Mastandrea et al., 2021) to consider the specific content of
the experimental design. This model is widely used for the
empirical study of an individual’s aesthetic experience, which
is a process of the affective and cognitive states generated
through a series of information processing stages (Leder et al.,
2004). As shown in Figure 1, a series of information processing
stages are proposed, which include pre-classification, perceptual
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FIGURE 1
Conceptual model of the experiment (Leder et al., 2004; Leder and Nadal, 2014; Pelowski et al., 2017; Mastandrea et al., 2021).
under different lighting conditions. To determine consistent
impression patterns among people in the display space upon
changing the color of light, different dependent variables of
impressions were measured using the Semantic Differential
Scale (Flynn and Spencer, 1977).
We believe that the combination of different types of images
and colored light may produce different results in individuals’
moods and impressions. Our hypotheses are as follows: H1; the
control of colored light can adjust the mood and impression
of individuals, H2; under the influence of colored light, the
individual’s mood will have a certain correlation with their
impressions, particularly the impact of mood on an interesting
impression, H3; under the influence of colored light, abstract
images more easily arouse the individual’s impressions than
realistic images.
FIGURE 2
Laboratory simulation space plan.
Experiment 1: Method
Laboratory setup
colors in the experiment: green, blue, red, and yellow. The light
color calibration is shown in Table 1; the related data were
measured using a Spectroradiometer JETI Specbos 1201. The
light equipment used was from a Philips hue white and color
ambiance starter kit A60, and the illuminance on the picture
surface was controlled at 250 lx. One lighting position was above
the picture on a white wall, and the other was at the center of
the ceiling in order to render the entire space. The waiting area
for resting and completing information forms was outside the
darkroom. The lighting condition of the waiting room was 5700k
and 500lx.
To strictly control the effect of experimental light on
the subjects, an experimental darkroom was selected as the
simulation space (see Figure 2). The room size was 2.5 x 1.64
x 2 m, with no influence from natural light, and the relative
humidity was maintained at 30% during the experiment. The
temperature was constant at 24◦ C. There is a certain difference
between RGB color and light color. Therefore, this research
comprehensively considered the color gamut, saturation, control
technology, and other factors, and we finally selected four
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TABLE 1 Light color calibration.
Lighting color
Spectrogram
Color coordinates (x, y)
Green
0.289, 0.478
Blue
0.191, 0.127
Red
0.562, 0.368
Yellow
0.443, 0.465
Stimuli
Twelve Chinese students from a university in Japan
participated as volunteers through open recruitment in the
pre-experimental material selection (six male students, six
female students, ages 20–30, five art and design majors, and
seven non-art and design major). In the test, five pictures
(see Figure 3, copyright from nature photographer Xin Zhong)
were selected from 12 black and white flower photography
works. The selection criterion was low familiarity, and the
To control the effects of the stimulus on color perception,
black and white pictures were used as experimental materials.
The display method was A3 sized prints which were hung on the
wall of the experimental darkroom. To prevent reflection of the
light affecting the visual perception of the subjects, matte photo
paper was used.
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FIGURE 3
Experimental materials: flowers (A–E).
TABLE 2 Multiple Mood States Scale.
TABLE 3 Semantic Differential Scale.
9 questions of Multiple Mood States Scale (M1-M9)
12 pairs of words in the Semantic Differential Scale
(SD1-SD12)
M1
I feel excited.
M6
I feel lonely.
M2
I feel nervous.
M7
I like this atmosphere.
SD1
Dark - Bright
SD7
M3
I feel my mind is
M8
I am willing to talk to others.
SD2
Cold - Warm
SD8
Gloomy - Cheerful
SD3
Blurry - Clear
SD9
Weak - Strong
Boring - Interesting
clear.
M4
M5
I feel that it is
M9
I think other people will like it.
Ugly - Beautiful
SD4
Glaring - Soft
SD10
difficult to
SD5
Dull - Rich
SD11
Unnatural - Natural
concentrate.
SD6
Static - Dynamic
SD12
Pessimistic -
I feel depressed.
Optimistic
Participants
accuracy of guessing the original image color was centered.
In the formal experiment, a within-subject design method was
adopted, and each participant saw four different colors of
light on five pictures. To reduce sampling and measurement
errors and to avoid additional variability due to the order
of pictures, the five pictures were randomly ordered during
the experiment.
Through open recruitment, eight Chinese observers aged
20–30 participated in the experiment as volunteers, including
four male observers and four female observers. They were
all students from a university in Japan; four professionals in
art and design and four non-art and design-related majors.
Before the experiment, the informed consent form was signed
by all observers. All observers used a color vision tester
Panel D-15 to check the judgment of color. Those who were
completely correct participated in formal experiments. The
participants provided written informed consent and received
500 JPY at the end of the study. The study was conducted
in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the
protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the first
author’s institution.
Questionnaire
The experimental questionnaire consisted of three parts.
The first part was basic information, including gender, age, and
specialty. This part was helpful to classifiy and analyze later
data. The second part was a nine-item question extracted from
the Multiple Mood States Scale (see Table 2) to measure the
mood state, from “1: not at all” to “5: totally agree.” The third
part was the Semantic Differential Scale (see Table 3). Subjects
scored 12 opposite pairs of factors, describing their subjective
impressions of the experimental materials in different lighting
conditions. The selection of these factors was based on scales
used in previous research to understand visitors’ impressions
toward visual objects (Zhai et al., 2015; Bhattacharjee and Pal,
2019).
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Procedure
As shown in Figure 4, observers entered the waiting
area, completed basic information and informed consent,
and then started the experiment after learning the relevant
experimental instructions and completing the color vision
check. (1) Observers entered the experimental dark room with
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FIGURE 4
Procedure for experiment 1.
one type of lighting condition. After 1 min of adaptation,
they evaluated the emotion affected by colored light using
the Multiple Mood States Scale. (2) Then, they observed five
black and white pictures. After 1 min, they evaluated the
pictures one at a time using the Semantic Differential Scale.
(3) Observers left the experimental dark room and waited
for 5 min in the rest area, during which the testers changed
the lighting conditions. (4) Steps (1) to (3) were repeated.
Observers were allowed to adapt to the next lighting condition.
The lighting and picture display sequences were random for
each observer.
Experiment 1: Results and discussion
Colored light and mood
Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and Jamovi. To
determine the mood, a repeated measures ANOVA method
was used. Different colors of light had a significant effect on
the subject’s excited mood [F(3,21) = 4.74, p = 0.011] (see
Figure 5). There was a significant difference between yellow light
and blue light [p = 0.011]. The results for feelings of nervous,
mind is clear, difficult to concentrate, depressed, lonely, like this
atmosphere, willing to talk to others, and guess other people will
like it, did not exhibit significant differences.
FIGURE 5
Result of participants’ excited mood in experiment 1. *p < 0.05.
method was performed based on the scores of the 12 groups
of words in the Semantic Differential Scale. The results show
that different colors of light have a certain effect on the
impressions toward pictures (see Figure 7), especially the darkbright impression [F(3,21) = 8.35, p = <0.001), cold-warm
impression [F(3,21) = 18.2, p = <0.001], blurry-clear impression
[F(3,21) = 5.62, p = 0.005], dull-rich impression [F(3,21)
= 4.01, p = 0.021], gloomy-cheerful impression [F(3,21) =
6.71, p = 0.002], weak-strong impression [F(3,21) = 3.78, p
= 0.026], unnatural-natural impression [F(3,21) = 4.64, p =
0.012], and pessimistic-optimistic impression [F(3,21) = 3.79, p
= 0.026].
Besides, majors presented significant results for
the boring-interesting impression [F(1,158) = 4.768,
p = 0.030] and the pessimistic-optimistic impression
[F(1,158) = 6.547, p = 0.011]. Participants with art
and design backgrounds had more interesting and
optimistic impressions, but for other vocabularies,
Colored lights and impressions
As shown in Figure 6, the preliminary results of the Semantic
Differential Scale under different lighting conditions show that
the scores for all words under yellow light conditions were
higher than the other three light conditions. Under the blue light
condition, the scores for dark-bright, cold-warm, blurry-clear,
dull-rich, gloomy-cheerful, and boring-interesting were lowest.
As a result, yellow light is the most suitable light for daily use
and visual work, and it can have a positive effect on the overall
visual impression.
The pictures themselves did not significantly affect the
impressions of the participants. A repeated measures ANOVA
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FIGURE 6
Degree of Semantic Differential Scale.
there was no significant
professional backgrounds.
difference
between
Discussion
different
The results show that proper colored light can play
a positive role in regulating individuals’ mood. The four
colors of light produce significant differences in the
excited mood, of which yellow and blue light exhibit
differences. As noted in previous studies, blue light has
a calming effect on people (Viola et al., 2008). Therefore,
regarding the design intent of a space atmosphere,
blue light can be distinguished from daily used light
(yellow light).
The bright impression induced by yellow light is different
from the other three colors of light; all scores of impressions
are positive results. This is probably because people prefer
the color yellow, which is close to natural light, and yellow
light is the most comfortable of the four lights for processing
visual information (Wan et al., 2012). Different colors of light
illuminate the pictures, and impressions of cold and warm
are the most obvious. There is no difference between red and
yellow lights; both can produce a warm feeling and bring out
a warm atmosphere. Green and blue tend to be cold, especially
blue light.
It can be seen from the factor analysis that the main factor
“sensory” is a significant part of the emotional state, followed by
“preferences” and “sharing.” These factors are closely related to
visitors’ interest in visual objects. Therefore, in the practice of
space design, the interest of visual and other objects in the space
can be enhanced through the design of lighting scenes.
Moods and impressions
Table 4 shows the three factors identified by the factor
analysis carried out in the Multiple Mood States Scale. Factor 1,
related to “sensory,” exhibited a total variance of 45%, including
nervous, difficult to concentrate, depressed, and lonely feeling.
Factor 2, related to “preference,” presented a total variance of
16%, including mind is clear, like this atmosphere, and guess
other people will like it. Factor 3, related to “sharing,” displayed
a total variance of 14%, including excited and willing to talk
to others. In particular, it is worth mentioning that a stronger
feeling of excited corresponded to a willingness to communicate.
In terms of a correlation between the Multiple Mood
States Scale and the Semantic Differential Scale, Figure 8
shows the Spearman correlation coefficients between the
boring-interesting impression and mood (words of mood
that are not related to boring-interesting impressions are
not listed). It can be seen that the lonely mood presented
the highest negative correlation coefficient, and the excited
mood exhibited the highest positive correlation coefficient. The
keywords in factor 1 that were related to “sensory” were all
negative in mood. Therefore, the moods of lonely, depressed,
and nervous are all negatively related to the impression
of interest.
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FIGURE 7
Result of participants’ impressions in experiment 1: (A) Dark-bright impression, (B) cold-warm impression, (C) blurry-clear impression, (D)
dull-rich impression, (E) gloomy-cheerful impression, (F) weak-strong impression, (G) unnatural-natural impression, and (H)
pessimistic-optimistic impression. *p < 0.05.
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Besides, the findings in experiment 1 suggest that
professional background may affect specific impressions
toward realistic images. According to previous studies,
researchers believed that people who are not in the arts and
design professions may focus on the realism of the artworks
(O’hare, 1976), while art and design background visitors will be
more concerned about the style and visual effects of artworks
(Cupchik and Gebotys, 1988). This study shows that participants
with an art and design background have a strong interest and
positive impressions toward the combination of colored light
and visual objects. The results show that colored lights that
affect impressions toward visual objects are irrelevant to the
medium of pictures considered in this study. Therefore, it can be
said that these findings can be applied to the display of realistic
images of flowers. However, it is not enough to study realistic
images, and abstract images still require further exploration.
TABLE 4 Rotated component matrix of mood factor analysis.
Factor 1
sensory (45%)
Factor 2
preference
(16%)
Factor 3
sharing (14%)
Excited
−0.317
0.464
0.675
Nervous
0.772
−0.165
−0.216
Mind is clear
0.064
0.908
−0.129
Difficult to
0.457
−0.307
0.287
0.814
−0.110
0.015
concentrate
Depressed
Lonely
Like this
0.899
−0.009
−0.170
−0.612
0.679
0.056
0.000
−0.146
0.870
−0.470
0.669
0.417
atmosphere
Willing to talk to
others
Other people may
like it
Experiment 2: Method
Based on experiment 1, we further explored the effect
of colored light on participants’ moods and impressions
toward abstract images. We thus designed experiment 2 and
improved the procedures, including changing the experimental
materials and questionnaires. The reason for this is that the
realistic nature of flower photography has certain limitations
on the perspectives of imagination and artistry. At the same
time, the participants observed the four different colors
of light-matched works, which caused the experiment to
run too long and the pictures to be viewed too much.
Moreover, complicated questions on the Multiple Mood State
Scale caused a certain amount of pressure on participants.
Therefore, experiment 2 used the same laboratory space as
experiment 1 with details of the procedures redesigned for the
above considerations.
each participant observed four different colors of the lightmatched unique pictures, and the order of presentation of the
stimulus and matching with light conditions were randomized.
Questionnaire
The experimental questionnaire consisted of four parts.
The first part was basic information, which was identical to
experiment 1. The second part was the Two-Dimensional Mood
Scale (TDMS), which measures the emotional state based on
answers to eight questions. It analyzes the emotional state
through changes in the scores of subjects before and after
different light interventions (see Figure 10). The third part was
the Semantic Differential Scale (see Table 5). Based on the results
of the scale used in experiment 1, eight groups of adjectives
were selected for experiment 2. The participants described the
different groups of adjectives by scoring them in a different
light, describing their subjective perception of the experimental
materials in the different environments.
Stimuli
Kandinsky’s paintings have been used as experimental
materials due to his unique abstract thinking and imagination
(Tanaka and Matsumoto, 2013). In this experiment, 16 Chinese
students from a university in Japan participated as volunteers
through open recruitment in the material selection preexperiment (eight male students, eight female students, ages
20 to 30, eight arts and design majors, and eight non-arts
and design), and finally selected four paintings with low
familiarities and strong correlations, which are Kandinsky’s four
series of paintings (see Figure 9), named composition IV, 1911;
composition V, 1911; composition VI, 1913; and composition
VII, 1913. The black and white display method was identical to
experiment 1. Using the within-subject design in the experiment,
Frontiers in Psychology
Participant
Through open recruitment, 36 Chinese observers aged 20–
30 participated in the experiment as volunteers. The final
effective number was 32, including 14 male observers and 18
female observers. They were all students from a university
in Japan; 12 professionals in art and design, and 20 non-art
and design-related majors. Before the experiment, the informed
consent form was signed by the observers. All observers used
the color vision tester Panel D-15 to check their judgment of
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10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938636
FIGURE 8
Spearman correlation coefficients between the boring-interesting impression and mood.
FIGURE 10
FIGURE 9
Two-Dimensional Mood Scale (TDMS) in English and Japanese.
Experimental materials. Kandinsky’s paintings: (A) Composition
IV, 1911, (B) composition V, 1911, (C) composition VI, 1913, and
(D) composition VII, 1913.
TABLE 5 Semantic Differential Scale.
Eight pairs of words in the Semantic Differential Scale (SD1-SD8)
color. Those who were completely correct participated in the
formal experiments. The participants provided written informed
consent and received 500 JPY at the end of the study. The study
was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki,
and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the
first author’s institution.
Procedure
Dark - Bright
SD5
Ugly - Beautiful
SD2
Cold - Warm
SD6
Gloomy - Cheerful
SD3
Blurry - Clear
SD7
Boring - Interesting
SD4
Dull - Rich
SD8
Unimaginative-Imaginative
of lighting condition present. After 1 min of adaptation, they
evaluated the emotion affected by colored light using a (post)
TDMS. (3) They observed Kandinsky’s pictures for 1 min and
completed the Semantic Differential Scale. (4) Observers left the
experimental dark room and waited for 5 min in the waiting
area, during which the testers changed the lighting and pictures.
(5) Steps (1) to (4) were repeated. Observers were allowed to
adapt to the next lighting condition. The lighting and picture
display sequences were random for each observer.
As shown in Figure 11, observers entered the waiting
area, completed basic information and informed consent,
and then started the experiment after learning the relevant
experimental instructions and completing the color vision
check. (1) Observers completed a (pre) TDMS in the waiting
area to obtain mood data before being affected by colored light.
(2) Observers entered the experimental dark room with one type
Frontiers in Psychology
SD1
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Xie et al.
10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938636
FIGURE 11
Procedure for experiment 2.
Experiment 2: Results and discussion
was not significant (p = 0.303), indicating that the color of
light and the pictures significantly affected the participant.
There was no synergy in the impact of the evaluation
of pictures.
2. Different colors of light exhibited significant differences
in the cold-warm impression of the participants [F(3,112)
= 3.504, p = 0.018], and the four pictures presented
no significant difference in the cold-warm impression
(p = 0.753). The interaction of the colored lights and
pictures exhibited a significant difference in the cold-warm
impression [F(9,112) = 2.392, p = 0.016, Wilk’s 3 = 0.161].
3. The effects of colored lights presented no significant
differences in the dark-bright (p = 0.577), dull-rich (p =
0.056), and fuzzy-clear (p = 0.716) impressions. However,
the effects of pictures exhibited significant differences in the
impressions of dark-bright [F(3,112) = 4.521, p = 0.005],
dull-rich [F(3,112) = 6.456, p = 0.000], and blurry-clear
[F(3,112) = 5.268, p = 0.002].
Colored lights and mood
In terms of emotions, the eight questions in the TDMS
were: calm (a), irritated (b), lethargic (c), energetic (d), nervous
(e), nervous (f), listless (g), and lively (h). Using the following
formulas, we obtained four results for vitality (V), stability (S),
pleasure (P), and arousal (A):
Vitality: V = d + h – c – g
Stability: S = a + e – b – f
Pleasure: P = V + S
Arousal: A = V – S
A total of 12 results were tested using two related samples
of non-parametric tests in order to determine differences in
the following four conditions: red light intervention, blue
light intervention, green light intervention, and yellow light
intervention. The results of the TDMS before and after the
interventions are shown in Table 6. Under different colored
light conditions, some items presented significant results in the
emotional sense. Red light displayed significant differences in
the moods calm (p = 0.010), irritated (p = 0.012), relaxed (p =
0.012), nervous (p = 0.008), stability (p = 0.001), and pleasure
(p = 0.003). Under the condition of blue light, the participants
presented significant differences in the moods irritated (p =
0.011), relaxed (p = 0.044), and stability (p = 0.024). Under
the conditions of green and yellow light, there were significant
differences in the moods pleasure (p = 0.025) and irritated (p
= 0.027).
Besides, majors presented significant results for the dull-rich
impression [F(1,126) = 4.148, p = 0.044]. Although the results of
experiment 2 show that interesting and optimistic impressions
did not differ significantly between different professional
backgrounds, the related impressions for participants with art
and design backgrounds were still higher than those with nonart and design backgrounds participants.
Discussion
In this experiment, the TDMS measures the change of
mood state before and after the light interventions; we can
obtain results before and after the use of colored light, which
more intuitively reflects the process of emotional change. These
results indicate that red light has the most significant effect on
mood changes, followed by blue light. Green light reduces the
feeling of pleasure, and yellow light relieves irritated feelings,
that is, for yellow light, as a common form of daily light, the
impact of mood change is weak. Previous research showed
that participants experienced higher levels of tension, anger,
depression, and anxiety and lower levels of visual comfort,
attractiveness, brightness, and calmness of environment in
Colored lights and impressions
In terms of impressions, the Semantic Differential Scale
was used to measure participants’ impressions under different
lighting conditions. Through multivariate analysis of variance
(MANOVA), the following conclusions can be drawn (see
Table 7):
1. The two factors light color and pictures, significantly
impacted participants’ impressions, with significances of
0.049 and 0.000, respectively; however, the interaction effect
Frontiers in Psychology
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TABLE 6 Changes in Two-Dimensional Mood Scale scores pre- and post-intervention.
Red Light
a
b
e
f
S
P
Blue Light
Pre
Post
↑ or ↓
M
3.44
2.97
↓** p = 0.010
SD
1.045
1.177
M
0.66
1.09
SD
0.745
0.995
M
3.37
2.691
SD
1.157
1.424
M
0.66
1.22
SD
0.865
1.157
M
5.50
3.34
SD
2.423
3.376
M
8.06
5.34
SD
5.162
6.073
↑* p = 0.012
↓* p = 0.012
↑** p = 0.008
↓** p = 0.001
↓** p = 0.003
Pre
Post
Green Light
↑ or ↓
Pre
Post
Yellow Light
↑ or ↓
Pre
Post
3.41
3.09
3.53
3.34
3.41
3.28
1.160
0.995
1.077
0.971
0.946
1.114
0.56
0.94
0.72
0.63
0.72
0.91
0.840
0.878
1.114
0.707
0.888
0.995
3.44
3.00
3.31
3.00
3.50
2.97
0.878
1.191
1.091
1.191
0.880
1.231
0.66
0.87
0.50
0.78
0.69
0.84
0.745
0.751
0.762
0.792
0.965
0.954
5.62
4.28
5.63
4.94
5.50
4.50
2.166
2.808
2.624
2.139
2.436
2.874
8.03
6.34
8.41
7.06
8.19
6.94
4.652
5.976
4.354
4.362
4.967
6.430
↑* p = 0.011
↓* p = 0.044
↓* p = 0.024
↓* p = 0.025
↑ or ↓
↓* p = 0.027
* p < 0.05.
** p < 0.01.
red environments compared with white, for both cold and
warm light (Shahidi et al., 2021). According to different space
requirements, the design and application of colored lights
should be more targeted, such as in medical and office spaces,
the purpose of which is to reduce people’s anxiety, which would
make the use of yellow light more suitable. For the purpose of
creating different emotional experience spaces, it is necessary
to choose a suitable colored light according to the scenario and
theme (Kuijsters et al., 2015).
Colored lights only affect the cold-warm impression, and
Kandinsky’s pictures factor into the impressions of dark-bright,
dull-rich, and blurry-clear. This is different from our initial
hypothesis. In the selection of experimental materials, we
originally believed that four pictures belonging to the same type
of materials would not produce any major differences; however,
in the actual emotional experience, they have significantly
influenced individuals. Previous research has shown that the
novelty and complexity of pictures have a certain potential
to arouse the observers’ response (Martindale et al., 1990).
This proves that the rich visual effects of the abstract images
themselves can play an important role in the aesthetic processing
of individuals’ impressions, and have indeed been playing an
important role in aesthetic studies (Iigaya et al., 2021).
TABLE 7 Probability (P) value of MANOVA.
Set of SD
Factor 2
Interaction
Light
Picture
Light × Picture
Dark - Bright
0.557
0.005
0.213
Cold - Warm
0.018
0.753
0.016
Blurry - Clear
0.719
0.002
0.842
Dull - Rich
0.056
0.000
0.231
Ugly - Beautiful
0.531
0.255
0.203
Gloomy - Cheerful
0.279
0.497
0.332
Boring - Interesting
0.435
0.141
0.391
Unimaginative-imaginative
0.458
0.122
0.599
this study strictly controlled the experimental environment
and materials, introduced the Multiple Mood States Scale and
TDMS to measure the mood state caused by colored lights,
and reflected on the differences between the two scales. The
Multiple Mood States Scale can reflect the current state of
mood, while the TDMS defines the momentary mood state
through comparison pre- and post-intervention. The value of
TDMS is in the measurement of mood states, and from the
perspective of measurement effectiveness, we can focus on
momentary mood states rather than continual mood. Especially
in experience research, how to enhance and create different
experiences requires understanding of the relationship between
colored lights and mood changes. A comparison with similar
research topics shows that the experimental results obtained
here for the effects of colored light on individuals’ mood are
reliable. It can be seen that the experimental method, reflecting a
specific population in a specific space, can be applied to the study
General discussion
The value of methods for measuring light
and emotional experience
Just like other design elements in the space, different
colors of light have a rich impact on the mood state of
the emotional experience. In a complex space environment,
Frontiers in Psychology
Factor 1
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Xie et al.
10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938636
Colored lighting design in display space
of light and mood, and to some extent, it can draw objective and
credible conclusions.
Besides, the semantic differential method as well as free
comments can be used to obtain individuals’ impressions.
The successful use of the Semantic Differential Scale in
this experiment once again verified the applicability of
the self-reporting method to experiments involving light
and impressions.
In the study of impressions toward visual objects, the results
of experiment 1 showed that different colors of light have an
impact on the impressions of flower pictures, and the flower
pictures themselves do not affect the participants’ impressions;
however, in experiment 2, different colors of light only affect
the cold-warm impression, and Kandinsky’s paintings affect
the impressions of dark-bright, dull-rich, and blurry-clear. The
difference between realistic and abstract images may be the cause
of this result, and also may due to the limitation of insufficient
number of participants in the study, further improvements are
needed in further in-depth experimental research in the future.
Previous studies have found that stimulus materials can affect
the participant’s response to pictures. One important factors is
the picture’s degree of realism, and another factor that cannot
be ignored is the clarity of the picture (Berlyne, 1971; O’hare,
1976). This suggests that, despite utilizing the same series of
works by the same artist, under the influence of real lighting
conditions and the properties of visual objects, individuals
can still generate different impressions. Therefore, in display
design, the distinction between different visual objects should be
further explored.
In display space, one of the ways to draw individuals’
attention to the visual objects, the environment, and even
the content of the space to generate further perception,
appreciation, and imagination, is to arouse interest, which can
make information easier and more effective to identify. Our
study demonstrates the connection between individuals’ interest
and mood. Positive moods such as excited, like this atmosphere,
and guessing that others’ affection for it, are shown to be
related to a positive interest impression. Although no more
specific results were obtained in this study, there are indications
that the state of mood and impression, caused by lighting as
an environmental factor, has a certain connection with the
awakening of interest, and may thus attract further research
attention. These findings inspire new considerations regarding
individuals’ perception of lighting in display space.
Colored lighting design for positive and
negative mood
The mood state in aesthetic experience is dynamic and
diverse. Although we think that the aesthetic experience itself
is usually positive (pleasant and interesting), previous research
has shown that it can also lead to negative (unpleasant and
uninteresting) results. In particular, the possibility of negative
results in laboratory tests is even greater (Leder et al., 2004).
This may be because, in the laboratory, the participants deal with
many types of stimuli in a certain time and space, and provide
exact answers, whereas in a real environment, individuals can
freely choose the place and visual objects according to their
interests. Moreover, in real display space, mood state is difficult
to measure directly. Our research also shows some negative
mood state results. For example, red and blue light increases
the sense of irritation and reduces the moods relaxation and
stability; red light can also reduce the moods calm and pleasure
and increase the mood nervousness.
To understand how colored lighting regulates mood,
scholars have explained the meaning of positive and negative
mood. Positive mood increases social and expansive tendencies
(Cunningham, 1988). Previous research discussed the overall
design approach using mood state as the driving force, and
proposed to build imaginable and meaningful relationships
between people and objects to stimulate any of the 25
positive emotions, including inspiration, hope, joy, satisfaction,
relaxation, and dreaminess (Desmet, 2012). A negative mood
will reduce our willingness to participate, but it can prompt
people to sit down and think, to be alone, and to be calm
(Desmet, 2015). It is indeed possible to intentionally use a
negative mood to create a rich experience (Fokkinga and
Desmet, 2013). In different space design purposes, colored
lights can be used to render a specific atmosphere to stimulate
people’s emotional experiences. The artist Kohei Nawa’s art
exhibit “Foam” (Nawa, 2019) reminds the visitors to calmly
think about the origin of life while applying blue light to render
the atmosphere. The theme of the exhibition and the design
of the lights are in line with our research results. Whether
the result of a positive or negative mood state, this research
provides valuable design opportunities for aesthetic experience
and colored lighting design.
Frontiers in Psychology
Conclusion
Compared with white lighting or even natural lighting, this
study focuses on individuals’ affective impression responses
produced by observing objects in a colored, illuminated space.
By comparing four typical colors of light (green, blue, red,
and yellow), we observe that red light reduces feelings of
calm, relaxed, stability, and pleasure, and elevates feelings of
irritated and nervous. Blue light reduces feelings of relaxed and
stability and increases irritated feelings. Green light reduces the
feeling of pleasure and yellow light reduces irritated feelings. At
the same time, this study shows that the interaction between
the type of artwork and the lighting has an impact on the
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10.3389/fpsyg.2022.938636
Author contributions
perception of visual objects. When observing a realistic image,
the individual’s impressions are only affected by the colored
lights, whereas when observing an abstract image, the image
itself and the colored lights jointly affect the individual’s
impressions. Therefore, for the design of emotional experiences
through control and organization of colored lights and visual
objects suggests that colored light may contribute to rich
affective changes and cognitive responses.
These discoveries may affect the design of display spaces
and may become a means to stimulate individuals’ attention,
perception, appreciation, and imagination of the space and
visual objects. It is worth mentioning that this study has some
limitations, such as a laboratory space setting instead of a real
display space. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further
study under real display space conditions to confirm the above
findings, and to study the characteristics and lighting effects of
different types of display space. as well as under more specific
colored light display conditions, such as dynamic lighting and
interactive media, it is worthwhile to conduct other studies to
evaluate the combination of colored lights, the frequency of
light changes, and the time of change, etc. In addition, since the
representativeness of this study needs to be further enriched,
this provides a direction for further in-depth research of our
experiments.
To this end, we must continue to explore the different ways
in which lighting stimulates individuals’ emotional experiences.
XX, TY, HF, and XT substantial contributions to the
conception. XX and TY designed this work. XX conducted
experiments, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript. TY,
HF, and JC revised and edited the manuscript. All authors
contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Emica Okumura, Rodrigo Fernandes,
Chen Zhou, and Somiya Bao from Yamanaka’s laboratory at
the University of Tsukuba for their valuable assistance with
this research. We would like to thank Yang Xiao from South
China Normal University for his suggestions on data analysis,
and Guoyuan Zhou from South China Normal University
for assistance in measuring the light color calibration data.
Thanks are also extended to the nature photographer Xin
Zhong for authorizing the use of his photographs of flowers as
experimental stimulus. Finally, thanks to Guangdong University
of Technology and Tsukuba University for the support in
this research.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in
the absence of any commercial or financial relationships
that could be construed as a potential conflict
of interest.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will
be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Publisher’s note
Ethics statement
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated
organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the
reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or
claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed
or endorsed by the publisher.
The studies involving human participants were reviewed
and approved by the Academic Ethics Committee of
Guangdong University of Technology. The patients/participants
provided their written informed consent to participate in
this study.
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