Fascinating, but not surprising that the study concludes that the "effect becomes weaker with an increase in programming experience".

Maybe of interest is Hughes' discussion [1] of the different forms of syntax colouring. It was discussed on HN before [2].

[1] http://www.wilfred.me.uk/blog/2014/09/27/the-definitive-guid...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8378799