What's Your Reaction?

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective was to find out if colored paper, as a background, affects the speed of kindergartners' identification of pictures on the paper. Methods/Materials I drew pictures on 4 different colored papers (white, sky blue, red and neon green). Then, I timed 70 kindergartners' reactions on each colored sheet and recorded their time. I did 3 trials on each student (4 sheets, 3 trials and 70 kindergartners) totaling 840 recordings. I used a stopwatch, a table, a graph sheet, pencil, a quiet room and 2 chairs. Results I found that white (my control) was the fastest in the students' reaction times. Sky blue was next fastest, then red then neon green was the slowest. Conclusions/Discussion My hypothesis was incorrect. The background colored paper did affect the speed of the kindergartners' reaction. I found in my research that neon green and red were the slowest because they are both distracting colors. Sky blue was not the fastest either because it is a relaxing color. White was my control, and I compared the other colors to it. Now, I know why teachers use white paper for worksheets.

Competition history

• CSEF 2010 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0602

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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