Light correlated color temperature and task switching performance in preschool-age children: Preliminary insights

Abstract

Data from a growing number of experimental studies show that exposure to higher correlated color temperature (CCT) ambient light, containing more blue light, can positively impact alertness and cognitive performance in older children and adults. To date, few if any studies have examined whether light exposure influences cognitive task performance in preschool-age children, who are in the midst of rapid developmental changes in attention and executive function skills. In this study, healthy children aged 4.5–5.5 years (n = 20; 11 females) completed measures of sustained attention and task switching twice while being exposed to LED light set to either 3500K (a lower CCT) or 5000K (a higher CCT). A control group (n = 18; 10 females) completed the tasks twice under only the 3500K lighting condition. Although the lighting condition did not impact performance on the sustained attention task, exposure to the higher CCT light lead to greater improvement in preschool-age children’s task switching performance (F(1,36) = 4.41, p = 0.04). Children in the control group showed a 6.5% increase in task switching accuracy between time points, whereas those in the experimental group improved by 15.2%. Our primary finding–that exposure to light at a higher correlated color temperature leads to greater improvement in task switching performance–indicates that the relationship between the spectral power distribution of light and executive function abilities is present early in cognitive development. These data have implications for designing learning environments and suggest that light may be an important contextual factor in the lives of young children in both the home and the classroom.

Occupants’ responses to window views, daylighting and lighting in buildings: A critical review

“…Six methods for data collection were identified from the studies on performance/productivity. Direct measurement of performance was used in 23 studies [30,[32][33][34][35]38,[48][49][50]55,57,64,66,68,71,74,87,91,94,[98][99][100]103] through a wide range of standardized tests, which covered mental functions as attention (sustained attention, attention to detail, vigilance tasks, reaction time) and cognition (logic, vocabulary, reading comprehension, problem solving, memory, cognitive speed, cognitive flexibility, creativity). Academic performance was analyzed in two studies using students' grades [58,104].…”

“…Only 17 studies reported the use of any shading device. Twenty-nine studies focused on artificial lighting, did not have shading devices due to windowless experimental settings [30,32,35,37,40,43,45,[47][48][49]54,55, 59,63,64,67,68,70,72,74,75,78,80,82,84,86,88,96,97]. When considered, shading devices were mostly internal.…”

“…Studies testing different aspects of the lighting fixtures as type of lamp, luminaire components, and lighting system design to fit the proportion of direct and indirect light were grouped into the artificial lighting features category [33,39,44,55,74,78,84,85,90,91,97,102]. Studies dealing with steady-state correlated color temperature were classified into three categories: correlated color temperature (CCT) [30,35,39,45,48,49,[66][67][68]76,78], correlated color temperature and horizontal illuminance (CCT and E h ) [35,46,89,98,103] and one study investigating correlated color temperature and lumen output (CCT and Lumen output) [61]. "Dynamic lighting" category included studies dealing with variable lighting, i.e., constant changes in correlated color temperature and illuminance [60,64,66,73].…”

Impact of Lighting on Children’s Learning Environment: A Literature Review

“…However, further review showed a contradiction between the impacts of lighting under controlled and field experiments, indicating that lighting infield experiments, which test in conditions much closer to everyday life, could be more precise in predicting the effect of lighting on the learning potentials of students in real-life situations [3]. Hartstein et al, however, examined the light exposure influences on cognitive task performance in 38 preschool children aged 4.5-5.5 by dividing them into two groups, the control (n = 18) and experimental group (n = 20), and exposing them to two different tasks aimed at measuring their sustained attention and task switching abilities, under varying lightemitting diode (LED) lighting condition of 3500K or 5000K [2]. The control group engaged the two-study task twice under the 3500K lighting conditions, while the experimental group had the two-study task under the 3500K lighting conditions as a baseline assessment, and after that, the 5000K lighting conditions.…”

“…There remains a need for focused, systematic research into the influence of the physical aspects of students' learning environment, by measuring various factors such as air quality, noise levels/music, plants, and lighting, reported to influence childrens' performance and wellbeing [1]. Lighting was reported to be an important factor that affects student learning and growth in the classroom environment [2], [3], so this review will present the collective findings on the impact of daylight on the learning environment, plus how to enhance lighting to influence the behavior and cognitive learning capabilities of children.…”