Results
People remembered more black and white words rather than words in color, thus the use of color did not enhance the subjects’ memories.
Repeating the Experiment
Possible Errors
- students working together to remember words
- repeating a mental mantra.
- do it on class days where a great amount of new material was presented within the forty minutes in between tests
- consider the fact that people could remember both words equally, and include that within my hypothesis
Experimental Procedure
Data
1.Create a list of twenty words that all the high school student participants will be able to pronounce
-Half the words in black and white
-Half the words in different colors (red, blue, yellow, etc.)
2.For two minutes let the participants study the words and then take away the list
3.Forty minutes to an hour later, give the participants the second list of words
-Half of the old words (dependent variable)
-Half new words (independent variable)
4.Have the participants put a check next to the words they remember from the old list
5.Duplicate this procedure until lists are collected from forty participants
Hypothesis
If words are presented in color instead of black and white, does this enhance memory of the terms?
The subjects will be able to memorize more colored words than black and white words.
- color channels
- previous experiment outcomes
Materials List:
•A list of twenty words with a mixture of black and white and colored
•A list of twenty words with half of the old words and half new words
•Pencils
•Timer
Studies of Dr. Bijan Pesaran
There are two different ways color can affect the memorizing capability:
1) if a word is printed in association with the meaning, like the word “apple” printed in red, this will provide a mnemonic device for the person
2) portrays color as a negative impact—a person will be looking at the color instead of memorizing the words
How Does Color Affect Memory?
By: Amber Suszycki