A study by Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, reveals that classrooms that are decorated heavily distract students.

For the study, the research team led by Anna V Fisher, associate professor of psychology in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, examined 24 students studying in kindergarten.

The students were put into classrooms where they were taught about 6 new science topics that they did not know about previously. The researchers decorated three of the classrooms and rest three did not have any decorations.

After this, the researchers tested the children on what they learned. The study findings showed a significant difference between the children's scores. The children who were taught in classroom with minimal decoration scored 55 percent on the test questions and the children from the other group scored 42.

"Young children spend a lot of time - usually the whole day - in the same classroom, and we have shown that a classroom's visual environment can affect how much children learn," lead study author Fisher, said in a news release.

"We do not suggest by any means that this is the answer to all educational problems. Furthermore, additional research is needed to know what effect the classroom visual environment has on children's attention and learning in real classrooms," she explained. "Therefore, I would suggest that instead of removing all decorations, teachers should consider whether some of their visual displays may be distracting to young children."

The study, 'Visual Environment, Attention Allocation, and Learning in Young Children When Too Much of a Good Thing May Be Bad,' was published in 'Psychological Science'.