The Effect of Colour on Students’ Cognitive Achievement in Video Instructions

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of colour on the achievement of three groups of learners from nursery, primary and secondary schools in Ilorin, Kwara State of Nigeria. Some concepts in mathematics were recorded on video and relayed to learners at the different levels; the difficulty of the learning task varied according to the level of learners involved. In all, 180 learners, 60 from each level, were involved. At each level, 60 students, randomly selected, were assigned to colour and black and white versions of the same video instruction. The research design was the pre‐test/ post‐‐test control group design. Results showed no clear‐cut conclusion on the effectiveness of colour on learning. In the nursery school, those who watched the colour version of the video instruction performed better than those who watched the black and white version. In the primary school, those who watched the black and white performed better than the colour group. In the secondary school, those who watched the colour version of the video instruction had only a marginal score over those who watched the black and white version of the same instruction. This was foUnd to be insignificant at the .05 level. Some deductions from the inconclusive results and the need for further research are given.