Abstract

A group of forty-seven undergraduate students participated in a repeated measures experimental study that examined the effect of two light sources—fluorescent SP30 and incandescent, two levels of illuminance—200 lux and 700 lux, and four colors on measures of four bi-polar subjective impressions such as like-dislike, pleasant-unpleasant, beautiful-ugly and satisfying-frustrating. The color pallets were created using saturation based combinations for red, yellow, green and blue. The results indicated that green was perceived as most positive, followed by blue and red. Yellow evoked the most negative response for subjective impressions as compared to the other colors. Subjects perceived blue as being more positive under the fluorescent than the incandescent lighting condition and red pallet as more positive in the incandescent than under the fluorescent condition. These findings support the view that depending on the color, spectral composition of the light sources can have an effect on subjective impressions.