Very few things have been "proven" in the sense you are talking about. People still have to make judgments about them anyway. By and large, most developers seem

Very few things have been "proven" in the sense you are talking about. People still have to make judgments about them anyway. By and large, most developers seem to have concluded that syntax highlighting helps them in some way. Possible reasons why: 1. Distinguishing different types of operators/primitives/objects from each other at a glance. 2. Aesthetic enjoyment. 3. An appropriate color scheme may be "easier on the eyes".