THE EFFECTS OF COLOR TO SHORT TERM MEMORY IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE

CONTEXT

Balderama, Vallerie
Gonzaga, Ralp Ernesto
Ibo, Hanna Rizza
BS PSYCHOLOGY 3A



This study intended to determine the effect of color to short term memory in Physical
Science context. It is limited to BS Psychology students of FAIth. The researchers
conducted a controlled experiment. After the results have been gathered, the results were
analysed and interpreted.

Key Words: black-and-white, red, blue, green, color, short term memory and Physical
science.


Introduction
Memory is an important part of our
lives. It enables us to do most of our
functions. Knowing and being able to
retrieve information from our memory keeps
us to perform our daily functions
efficaciously. It also permits us to encode
and store information for retrieval. It allows
us to learn new skills and make habits.
Without the ability to retrieve information,
we will not comprehend language and
recognize things. Strengthening our memory
can be done through techniques which make
it easier to encode and retrieve information.
These ways could be mnemonics, method of
Loci, pegword method, PQ4R method. It
could also be improved through the use of
colors.
Color is an important function that
signals and facilitates perceptual
organization. We associate color with
things. An objects characteristic color
influences our perception of its color.
Therefore, if contexts would be colored, it
would be easier for us to store information.
According to Denby (2002), the glare of
the white paper makes it hard for some
dyslexic children and adults to read text.
These dyslexic people are unable to focus on


the information in the white paper and
therefore, cant memorize or learn. White
paper is highly aversive which causes
learning to become aversive as well. By
simply using a filter to change the color of
the paper, dyslexic people with glare
problem can concentrate on material found
on the paper.
In this study, the researchers aim to
identify the effects of colors on short term
memory in Physical Science context. The
words that will be memorized will either be
black-printed or randomly colored. The
study is confined to the BS Psychology
students of FAIth (A.Y. 2012 2013).

Short Term Memory
It is the memory store in which
information first has meaning, although the
maximum length of retention is relatively
short (Feldman, 2005). Working memory
has a basic limitation: It can hold only a
limited amount of information at one time
(Microsoft Encarta, 2009). Early research on
short-term storage of information focused on
memory spanhow many items people can
correctly recall in order. Researchers would
show people increasingly long sequences of
digits or letters and then ask them to recall
as many of the items as they could. In 1956
American psychologist George Miller
reviewed many experiments on memory
span and concluded that people could hold
an average of seven items in short-term
memory. He referred to this limit as the
magical number seven, plus or minus two
because the results of the studies were so
consistent. More recent studies have
attempted to separate true storage capacity
from processing capacity by using tests
more complex than memory span. These
studies have estimated a somewhat lower
short-term storage capacity than did the
earlier experiments. People can overcome
such storage limitations by grouping
information into chunks, or meaningful
units.
Working memory is critical for
mental work, or thinking. Suppose you are
trying to solve the arithmetic problem 64 9
in your head. You probably would need to
perform some intermediate calculations in
your head before arriving at the final
answer. The ability to carry out these kinds
of calculations depends on working memory
capacity, which varies individually. Studies
have also shown that working memory
changes with age. As children grow older,
their working memory capacity increases.
Working memory declines in old age and in
some types of brain diseases, such as
Alzheimers disease.
Working memory capacity is
correlated with intelligence (as measured by
intelligence tests). This correlation has led
some psychologists to argue that working
memory abilities are essentially those that
underlie general intelligence. The more
capacity people have to hold information in
mind while they think, the more intelligent
they are. In addition, research suggests that
there are different types of working
memory. For example, the ability to hold
visual images in mind seems independent
from the ability to retain verbal information
(Microsoft Encarta, 2009).
The capacity of short-term memory
is very limited. Consider digit span:
participants listen to a random series of
digits and then repeat them back
immediately in the correct order. Other span
measures are letter span and word span. The
maximum number of units (e.g., digits)
recalled without error is usually seven plus
or minus two (Miller, 1956). However,
there are two classifications concerning that
finding. First, Miler (1956) argued that the
capacity of short-term memory should be
assessed by the number of chunks
(integrated pieces or units of information).
The capacity of short-term memory is often
seven chunks rather than seven items.
However, Simon (1974) found that the span
in chunks was less with larger chunks (e.g.,
eight-word phrases) than with smaller
chunks (e.g., one-syllable words).
The recency effect in immediate
recall in free recall (recalling the items in
any order) refers to the finding that the last
few items in a list are usually much better
remembered than those from the middle of
the list. Counting backwards for 10 seconds
between the end of list presentation and start
of recall mainly affects the recency effect
(Glanzer & Cunitz, 1966). The two or three
words susceptible to the recency effect
maybe in the short-term store at the end of
list presentation and so especially
vulnerable. However, Bjork and Whitten
(1974) found that there was still a recency
effect when participants counted backwards
for 12 seconds after each item in the list was
presented. According to Atkinson and
Shriffrin (1968), this should have eliminated
the recency effect.

Effects of Color
Color is an important function that
signals and helps facilitate perceptual
organization. Memory color is a
phenomenon in which an objects
characteristic color influences our
perception of its color. By using color as
stimuli, there is a reduced likelihood that
results will be confounded by hierarchical
groupings or semantic associations. Children
begin to develop their color knowledge long
before they begin formal education. This
implementation of familiar colors to
beginning students would, therefore,
increase their ability to recognize and
memorize information. Kido (2000) found
that the color blue evokes high
electrodermal values and causes excitation
of the sympathetic nervous system. Perhaps
the use of this color would increase the
memorization skills of students as we. A
study by Goolsby (2001) also found that
there are age-related improvements on
explicit color memory. The explicit color
memory task was performed that only
differed in test instructions from the implicit
color choice task. On the opposite end of the
spectrum, as people begins to fail. However,
Robinson and Cipolotti (2001) found that
elderly subjects showed selective
preservation in color naming even though
they had problems in many other categories
such as naming nouns.

Color Memory
Memory color is an important part of
the business world. Success in the sales-
related area depends on the satisfaction of
the customer and the ability to make one
product stand out more than the competing
product. David (1999) reported that in a
study conducted by the Newspaper National
Network black-and-white ads had an
unaided recall rate of 6%, but the only ad
using color scored 21%. Without even
realizing it, the customer will use memory
color to find areas in a store that are familiar
to them. According to Goldstein (2002),
familiar colors are seen as being richer and
also more saturated. The consumers
attention will be drawn to displays or signs
that appeal to their color knowledge. Many
businesses already use brightly colored signs
that grasp the attention of the consumer and
leave an image in their mind. People become
familiar with certain color associated with
brand name items. When the same colors are
used on extension brands, the recognition of
that color is used and this is a major strategy
used by copycat brands. Businesses not only
use color to increase sales but also to
increase productivity and safety of
employees.
(2012, December 3). Retrieved from
www.laurenschrarff.com:(http://ww
w.laurenschrarff.com/courseinfoo/SL
02/memory_color.htm)

In a study conducted by
Mecklenbruker, Hupbach, and Wippich
(2001) they have concluded that the
recollection of colored objects is just as
likely as if the objects were presented in
black and white. In addition, they also
concluded that while the children did use the
colors as a mnemonic to remember, it does
not serve as a primary tool to better help
retention of information. Ling and Blades
(1996) on the other hand, discussed that
previous investigations have shown
disparities in recalling information in color.
They describe that while some studies show
that people tend to forget colors, some tend
to remember them better. As a result, they
perform experiments on both children and
adults to see if they can find concrete
evidence to answer the question either way.
As they further investigate into their topic,
however, they also find other studies that
contradict the discrepancies in memory
retention in children.
In 2006, Spence, Wong, Rusan, and
Rastegar found just that. In their study, 120
participants viewed a sequence of images of
natural scenes on a computer monitor. The
participants were either shown colored
scenes or gray scale scenes. The same
scenes were then shown again, either in
color or in gray scale. The participants were
asked to rate the scenes as old or new.
Spence et al. (2006) found that color
increased the recognition of the natural
scenes by approximately 5%.
McConnohie (1999) created a
slideshow with alphanumeric characters
such as a B or a 2. He showed the
slideshow to a classroom of middle
schoolers and asked them to recall as many
characters as they could immediately after
seeing the slideshow and then again an hour
later. He repeated this three times, each time
using a different color for the background of
the slideshow (white, blue, or green). The
character color for all three slideshows was
black. McConnohie found that the slideshow
with the white background resulted in higher
retention rates both immediately, and one
hour after viewing the slideshow. This
would be an expected result since blue and
green are both cool colors and therefore
wont have as much of an arousing effect as
white would.
Stevens (2005) indicated that while
color does enhance visual memory for both
older and younger subjects, the effect of
aging on visual memory was generally not
significant, meaning that the positive effect
of color on memory was statistically the
same whether it was for younger or older
subjects. However, it was true that older
subjects made more errors identifying black
and white objects than younger subjects.

Method

The treatment involved the
participation of 12 BS Psychology students
of FAIth (AY 2012-2013). They were
assigned randomly to each of the 3 treatment
conditions. Before the experiment
commenced, the subjects were shown a 3-
minute introductory video of Ice Age 4.
General instructions and guidelines were
laid to the subjects before the experiment
begun. The experiment consisted of two
phases the Presentation Phase and Query
Phase. During Presentation Phase, 6 slides
were presented. Each of the slides shows 5
words which are within Physical Science
context. These words were from the subject
areas of Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry and
Thermodynamics. 3 of the slides are
presented in black-and-white and 1 slide for
each red, green and blue colors were
displayed. Each of the slides was presented
for only 5 seconds. This was to support the
Atkinson-Shiffrin Theory (1968) which
stated that short term memory only lasts for
30 seconds. The subjects task is to
memorize the words. They were told to
memorize the texts according to the group of
color they belong. After the Presentation
Phase, Query Phase immediately followed.
During this, the subjects wrote their
remembered black-and-white-colored words
in the Answer Sheet. Time was not limited
here. Further instructions were explained in
the Answer Sheet that was given. After the
1
st
week, the experiment was done again.
During the Query Phase, there were asked
about the words they remember from the
red, green and blue groups. They were
debriefed and given a token each.
Results
Table 1 showed that the number of
male and female is not equal and at the same
time the distribution of age among is not
equal. This makes it impossible for the
researchers to affirm about such causal
relationships with the basis of this study.
However, it is important to note that
we use our memory color. The color of a
thing serves as a stimulus for it to
remember. The results appeared (Table 2)
that the colored texts are mostly
remembered than printed in black. It is
concluded that it is more recalled because
the words are presented in different colors
namely red, green and blue. Unlike the
black-and-white texts, the colored words are
more conspicuous.
When looking at Table 3 forming a
conclusion about the possible relationship of
age and gender in terms of accuracy of recall
cannot be clearly clarified in this research.
Since the population of male and female
respondents are not equal and the age of
population is not equally distributed.
By looking at the numbers in Table
4, t-test related showed that there is a
significant relationship between color and
short-term memory. The calculated t of 5.77
is greater than the critical level of 2.72 for p
< 0.01. The results are significant in the
predicted direction, which rejects H
o
and
accepts H
1.

Table 1: Shows the distribution of
the respondents according to gender and
age. 4 out of 12 subjects were 17 years old,
3 were 18 years old, 2 were 19 years old,
and 2 were 20 years old and only 1 of the
subject is aged 21 years old. In the second
category, three-fourths (3/4) of the
population were females and the remaining
one-fourth (1/4) were males.
Demographic profile of the
Respondents
1.1. Age
17 years old
18 years old
19 years old
20 years old
21 years old
Frequency
4
3
2
2
1
1.2. Gender
Male
Female

3
9

Table 2: Indicates the number of recalled
words in both groups namely, black-and-
white and colored texts. A total of 180
words were shown and only 40 of it were
recalled in the first group while 83 of the
total texts were remembered in the latter
group. The colored-words group was more
remembered than the other group.
Recalled Black-and-white and Colored
Words
PHYSICAL
SCIENCE
TEXTS
BLACK
AND
WHITE
WORDS
COLORED
WORDS
Number of
presented
words
180 180
Number of
recalled
words
40 83

Table 3: Presents the number of
recalled words in terms of age and gender.
In the first category, 41 out of 120 words
were recalled by 17 year old students, 31 out
of 90 words were recalled by 18 year old
students, 21 out of 60 words were
remembered by 19 year old students, 19
were recalled out of 60 words by 20 year old
students and only 11 words were recalled
out of 30 by a 21 year old student.
In the gender category, the males
recalled 32 out of 90 words while the other
sex recalled 91 out of 270 words.

Number of Recalled Words in Terms of Age
and Gender
CATEGORY
RECALLED WORDS
(BLACK AND
WHITE AND
COLORED WORDS)
3.1. Age
17 years
old
18 years
old
19 years
old
20 years
old
21 years
old

41 out of 120 words
31 out of 90 words
21 out of 60 words
19 out of 60 words
11 out of 30 words
3.2. Gender
Male
Female

32 out of 90 words
91 out of 270 words

Table 4: The hypothesis was one-
tailed and the calculated t of 5.77 is greater
than the critical level of 2.72 for p < 0.01.
The results are significant in the predicted
direction, which rejects H
o
and accepts H
1
.


Discussion
There were three questions asked in
this research. What is the demographic
profile of the respondents when grouped in
terms of age and gender? What group of
words will be more remembered by the
respondents in terms of printed in black and
randomly colored? What group will retain
greater accuracy of recall in both groups of
color in terms of age and gender?
Since there is no equal distribution of
gender and age on the respondents, this
makes it impossible for the researchers to
affirm about such causal relationships with
the basis of this study. Though there are
some studies that proved such correlation.
According to Stevens (2005) color does
enhance visual memory for both older and
younger subjects, the effect of aging on
visual memory was generally not significant,
meaning that the positive effect of color on
memory was statistically the same whether it
was for younger or older subjects. Whereas
no gender would have the advantage over
the other (Cabal, 2005). The color words
obviously cannot be the sole determinant of
the effectiveness of memory retention for
either males or females.
When taking a look around what
group of words will be more remembered in
terms of printed in black or randomly
colored, this is where things start to get
interesting. Within each phases, when
comparing the results of colored text to print
in black, the colored text was remembered
better than the text which is printed in black
because there is significant relationship
between color and short-term memory.


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