Colour contribution to children's wayfinding in school environments

Date
2011
Authors
Helvacioglu, E.
Olgunturk, N.
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
Co-Advisor
Co-Supervisor
Instructor
Source Title
Optics & Laser Technology
Print ISSN
0030-3992
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
Elsevier
Volume
43
Issue
2
Pages
410 - 419
Language
English
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Series
Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the contribution of colour to children's wayfinding ability in school environments and to examine the differences between colours in terms of their remembrance and usability in route learning process. The experiment was conducted with three different sample groups for each of three experiment sets differentiated by their colour arrangement. The participants totalled 100 primary school children aged seven and eight years old. The study was conducted in four phases. In the first phase, the participants were tested for familiarity with the experiment site and also for colour vision deficiencies by using Ishihara's tests for colour-blindness. In the second phase, they were escorted on the experiment route by the tester one by one, from one starting point to one end point and were asked to lead the tester to the end point by the same route. In the third phase, they were asked to describe verbally the route. In the final phase, they were asked to remember the specific colours at their correct locations. It was found that colour has a significant effect on children's wayfinding performances in school environments. However, there were no differences between different colours in terms of their remembrances in route finding tasks. In addition, the correct identifications of specific colours and landmarks were dependent on their specific locations. Contrary to the literature, gender differences were not found to be significant in the accuracy of route learning performances.

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)