Does color affect memory?
By: Kaylee Donner
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this experiment was to figure out if people remember certain colors more than they remember others and which one is remembered the most. I became interested in this experiment because I want to learn more about our senses and our brains. I also am interested in eyes and how they see different things. The information gained from this experiment will help others like teachers make important papers certain colors to help their students remember important information, or lawyers to help the judge or jury remember important clues or facts about a court trial.
Research
My first idea that I researched was if certain ages effect how much a person remembers. This helped me to understand what ages of people I should use to help me better understand my experiment. I also tried to figure out if the majority of the colors most people remember are primary colors or secondary colors. There are also warm colors or cool colors. The cool colors include blues and grays and the warm colors include oranges and reds. Someone might be able to remember warm colors more than cool colors or maybe they will be remembered equally.
Because the brain’s different parts all have different functions I researched things about the occipital lobe and the temporal lobe. The occipital lobe is located at the back of your brain and is in charge of seeing shapes and colors, and the right temporal lobe is in charge of visual memory which is located near your ear. Along with these things, I researched different fonts and their sizes, and what effects they have on memory. Researching this helped me better understand which font and font size would be best to use for my expirement.Hypothesis
My hypothesis is the warm colors like orange, yellow, and red will be remembered better than the cool colors like blue, grey, and purple. I base my hypothesis on my research and my background knowledge.
Materials and Variables
-12 willing participants (6 male and 6 female)
-gym
-colored ink
-paper
Independent Variable-Color of words
Dependent Variable-What color is remembered better and the most
Constant- Word Size
Constant- Word Font
Procedures
1. Print off the same word in different colors with the same font of Arial and the same size of 150.
2. Put the words into a set of cards.
3. Have 6 people, all different ages, look through the cards for 30 seconds.
4.Wait 15 minutes and ask them what the word was. Ask them the words colors too, then have them tell it to you.
5.Do this the same way just with a different set of words each time.
6.Make sure to record your data.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 , three times.Observation Log with Tally Marks
Data
Graph
Results
Conclusion
My hypothesis was the warm colors like orange, yellow, and red would be remembered better than the cool colors, blue, grey, and purple.
The results indicate this hypothesis should be considered correct.
Based on the results of this experiment, teachers and lawyers should use red ink for important papers that need to be remembered.
- If I were to conduct this science fair project again, I would use different colors to test.