紅色房間，效率最高

What color are your favorite spots for studying? We're going to guess that they're probably not painted bright red or yellow. But maybe they should be.

你最喜歡的學習地點是什么顏色的?我猜，它們肯定不是黃色或者大紅色吧。但也許黃色或大紅色才更有利于你學習呢?

Pop quiz.

假設，突擊測試來了

You have to cram for an exam. You have two rooms to choose from. One's a pale blue, and the other's a vivid red. Which one do you settle into for a study session? Is one going to get your brain fired up for learning, or let you relax into a state of optimal concentration?

你必須為了這次小測驗臨時抱抱佛腳。那么問題來了，現在有兩個房間，一個是淡藍色，一個是大紅色，你會選擇哪個作為你的學習地點呢?是一個會讓你的大腦因學習而感到興奮的，還是一個會讓你的大腦感到放松然后進入到一個最佳的集中狀態(tài)的那個?

According to researchers at Curtin University in Australia, it might be best to camp out in the bright red room when you're looking to retain information.

根據澳大利亞科廷大學的研究人員的說法，當你想要記憶大量信息的時候，最好在明亮的紅色房間里待著。

It might sound strange, since we often think of pale rooms — soft blues or light greens — as soothing, or even reassuring. And they seem to be: The Curtin University study showed that pale colors made subjects feel more relaxed and calm, while bright, vivid colors increased heart rate. But calming and relaxing, it turns out, may not always be the best environment for intense concentration or knowledge intake. Reading comprehension was much better in the vivid rooms than in the paler rooms.

這聽起來可能有些奇怪，因為談到學習，我們總會認為柔和的藍色、淡綠色房間可以讓人放松，甚至讓人更安心。并且事實也似乎的確如此: 科廷大學的研究表明淡色使受試者感到更加放松和平靜，而明亮、鮮艷的顏色則提高了受試者心率。但事實證明，冷靜和放松并不總是集中注意力或吸收知識的最佳環(huán)境。在顏色更生動的房間里，閱讀理解的成績會更好一些。

Although subjects reported that they generally preferred the pale rooms to study in as a means to relax into work, the researchers saw just the opposite — that the stimulating rooms seemed to perk up concentration.

盡管研究對象報告說，他們通常更喜歡在顏色平和一點的房間里學習，因為這樣更放松也就能更好的投入到工作中，但研究結果卻出現了相反的情況：刺激的房間似乎更能夠提高注意力。

While this might seem merely surprising, the finding gets into a fairly controversial area of psychological study. The Yerkes-Dodson Law says that a little bit of stress is good for achieving optimal performance, while too much stress negatively affects it. The higher heart rate, the reports of the vivid colors inducing a tense atmosphere — it just might indicate that a little stress was good for the brain.

雖然結果只會讓我們略感驚訝，但其實，這項發(fā)現卻帶我們進入了一個頗具爭議的心理學研究領域。耶基斯-多德森定律表明，輕微壓力有利于我們獲得最佳表現，而過多的壓力則會產生負面影響。略微加速的心率、更生動的色彩營造了一個稍稍緊張的氣氛，所以學習效率會更高，而這可能恰好說明輕微的壓力對大腦有好處。