红色房间，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.

你最喜欢的学习地点是什么颜色的?我猜，它们肯定不是黄色或者大红色吧。但也许黄色或大红色才更有利于你学习呢?

Pop quiz.

假设，突击测试来了

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?

你必须为了这次小测验临时抱抱佛脚。那么问题来了，现在有两个房间，一个是淡蓝色，一个是大红色，你会选择哪个作为你的学习地点呢?是一个会让你的大脑因学习而感到兴奋的，还是一个会让你的大脑感到放松然后进入到一个最佳的集中状态的那个?

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.

根据澳大利亚科廷大学的研究人员的说法，当你想要记忆大量信息的时候，最好在明亮的红色房间里待着。

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.

这听起来可能有些奇怪，因为谈到学习，我们总会认为柔和的蓝色、淡绿色房间可以让人放松，甚至让人更安心。并且事实也似乎的确如此: 科廷大学的研究表明淡色使受试者感到更加放松和平静，而明亮、鲜艳的颜色则提高了受试者心率。但事实证明，冷静和放松并不总是集中注意力或吸收知识的最佳环境。在颜色更生动的房间里，阅读理解的成绩会更好一些。

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.

尽管研究对象报告说，他们通常更喜欢在颜色平和一点的房间里学习，因为这样更放松也就能更好的投入到工作中，但研究结果却出现了相反的情况：刺激的房间似乎更能够提高注意力。

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.

虽然结果只会让我们略感惊讶，但其实，这项发现却带我们进入了一个颇具争议的心理学研究领域。耶基斯-多德森定律表明，轻微压力有利于我们获得最佳表现，而过多的压力则会产生负面影响。略微加速的心率、更生动的色彩营造了一个稍稍紧张的气氛，所以学习效率会更高，而这可能恰好说明轻微的压力对大脑有好处。