Effectiveness of monochrome and color presentations in facilitating affective learning

The proliferation of color television sets in American homes in the last five years suggests that the monochrome receiver may soon meet a fate similar to that of the 78 rpm phonograph record. Meanwhile, the transitional state in home television viewing-from monochrome to color-has made it possible to design a study to investigate 1) the relative effectiveness of color and monochrome school presentations on affective learning among elementary school children and 2) the relationship between the predominant home viewing mode and the measures of affective learning from the school presentations. As a result of film studies by A. W. VanderMeer (1954), we know that students, when given a choice, would rather view a color presentation than one in black-and-white. These and other studies, most of which were reviewed by Kanner (1968), disclosed that cognitive learning was not helped by color. Indeed, there were instances in which monochrome fared somewhat better. REVIEW OF RESEARCH