Equipped with a refined focal adjustment system, adjustable sensitivity, and instant transmission, our eyes leave behind any state-of-the-art camera. Our visual system is indeed complete, and the influence of vision in our lives is so great that various artists have created incredible works to be appreciated by this sense. When we see something truly beautiful and interesting, it seems we cannot divert our gaze. Who has never been enchanted by the works of a brilliant architect, like Oscar Niemeyer, or never been moved by touching photographs, like those of photographer Sebastião Salgado?
The speed and the extensive detail provided by vision lead various authors to point it out as the dominant sensory modality in humans. A study conducted by Schifferstein (2005) compared the potential contribution of each of the senses in product experience and showed that, in real-life situations, vision is indeed dominant. However, it is important to emphasize that another study, conducted by the same author (2006), showed that people do not always consider it the main sense in interaction with products. Depending on the object analyzed, other senses may become predominant in this dynamic. In fact, in 25 of the 45 products evaluated (56%), vision was not considered the most important sense; this occurred with items such as deodorants, soaps, and cookies, where other sensory modalities were judged more important by the participants.
Light is essential for capturing images with the eyes, but it is also involved in many behaviors and physiological functions, such as regulating the sleep cycle, hormonal secretion, thermoregulation, and cognition. And do the effects of brightness on the body depend on the color emitted? Two studies evaluated the impact generated by exposure to different wavelengths on cognition and revealed that blue light enhances our cognitive performance. The first used a simple attention test (based on reaction time) and showed that blue light promoted better performance on the task compared to green light. The second study used a task that required greater cognitive demand, and again, exposure to blue light favored reasoning compared to exposure to green or violet light (reviewed in Vandewalle et al., 2009).
Just as blue light aids rational activity, could it also influence other bodily activities? And could other colors exert some impact or modulation on specific physiological functions? It is very intriguing to know that the variation of the wavelength of light we are exposed to can generate such significant changes, but does this only occur with light, or can the color of objects also influence our behavior and performance? In the next post, we will see some very interesting works on this topic.
References
Schifferstein HNJ, Cleiren MPHD. Capturing product experiences: a split-modality approach. Acta Psychologica. 2005;293-318;
Schifferstein HNJ. The perceived importance of sensory modalities in product usage: A study of self-reports. Acta Psychologica. 2006;121:41-64;
Vandewalle G, Maquet P, Dijk DJ. Light as a modulator of cognitive brain function. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2009;13(10):429-38.
