Colored Thoughts
CSEF · 2011 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only)
Overview
Objectives/Goals To determine if the color of text affects a person's memory. I hypothesize that the color of text affects a person's memory by catching his/her attention and making him/her more aware of it, enabling the word to be easier to recall. Methods/Materials This experiment was conducted on 70 middle school students, ages 11-14 years, at Sacred Heart Academy. Each volunteer read an original short-story that contained 9 words in colored print. Then he/she was asked to recall any words from the original short-story. The words recalled were classified and counted as either colored print or black print. The results were calculated in percentages. Results 54% of the volunteers remembered more colored than black print words (colored > black). 30% remembered more black than colored print words (colored < black). 16% remembered an equal amount of both (colored = black). Conclusions/Discussion The coloring of text enhances a person's memory. When words are in colored print, they are more easily recalled because the colored words will draw a person's attention and make him/her more aware of that specific word or phrase. It is possible that the activities of the temporal and occipital lobes are enhanced by color causing increased visual memory. On the other hand, this result should be interpreted with caution because for some people, the colored words may actually be a distraction, thus making the words harder to remember. However, in most cases, this study may be helpful as a learning tool for students, as well as individuals with learning disabilities such as Dyslexia, and the elderly who may have a decreasing memory resulting from Alzheimer's.
Summary statement
My project was to see if the color of text would affect a person's memory.
Help received
Mother helped type report; Older brother helped gather subjects/volunteers
Competition history
- CSEF 2011
Resources
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Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects