The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students

___________________________________________________________________________
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HIGHLIGHTER MARKERS ON THE MEMORY RETENTION OF
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
1
Moira Neal C. Panganiban, John Win R. Solomon, Janele P. Binauhan, Nicole S. Gloria,
Yanna Francesca H. Regala, Alpha Josis T. Bautista, Ian Julius A. Magbanua, Alecksandra
Ashanti S. Bernardo, Bojo R. Relox, and 1Laurence Ralph V. Estrella

1Senior High School Department, Emilio Aguinaldo College, City of Dasmariñas, Cavite

*corresponding author: [email protected]

contact number: 09064633715

KEYWORDS:
Abstract
Highlighters
Memory Retention
Color
Highlighting is one of the most common learning strategies among
students. In order to identify whether highlighter markers are effective on
the Senior High School students’ memory retention or not, the researchers
used the highlighters as the intervention and dependent variable of their
study. Also, the researchers conducted a pre-test and post-test on Emilio
Aguinaldo College – Cavite Senior High School (EAC-C SHS) students
through a reading material with a following multiple choice-type of survey
questionnaire on thirty (30) Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences
(HUMSS) students, divided them equally into two to form a control group
and experimental group, which were acquired through simple random
sampling. The pre-test occurred after reading the text while the post-test
occurred after two days. After the data have been gathered, tabulated, and
treated via two-sample mean T-test, it turned out that the mean scores for
the controlled group are 8.53 and 8.33 for the pre-test and post-test,
respectively. Also, it turned out that the mean scores for the experimental
group for the post-test and pre-test are 8.93 and 8.73, respectively.
Moreover, the P-value of the controlled group and experimental group are
both 0. 53, which was interpreted by the researchers as a retain null
decision since it is greater than 0.05. The said decision means that
highlighters have no significant effect on memory retention. So, the
researchers recommended to the students to know their personal learning
preferences and techniques to know which fit to their mental capabilities
in order to improve their memory retention skills.

© 2019 Emilio Aguinaldo College-Cavite. All Rights reserved

1
 The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HIGHLIGHTER MARKERS ON THE MEMORY

RETENTION OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
INTRODUCTION

Humans can store a lot of information or memories in their brains. According to Atkinson
and Shriffin (n.d), some of the information were short-term and some of them were retained for a
long period of time. One of the main questions in the field of cognitive psychology is how to enhance
the performance of the human brain’s memory. A lot of factors have been proposed to aid in the
memory retention of the brain and one of it is the color. In psychology, colors have a huge impact
on an individual’s perception. In fact, “Colour can be very effective in learning and educational
setting, marketing, communication, or even sport. For instance, a marketing study has found that
color can increase brand recognition by up to 80%” (Morton, 2010). Moreover, colors on readings,
for instance can catch the attention of its readers. “The more attention focused on certain stimuli,
the more chances of the stimuli to be transferred to a more permanent memory storage,”
(Sternberg, 2009). This present research will prove the effectivity of colors, in the form of highlighter
markers on the memory retention of the Senior High School Students.

Review/Survey of Related Literature

This portion deals with the supporting literature and studies of the said research topic.

Local Literature

According to Gonzales and Reyes (2016), before reading anything, learners prefer to
examine first the material and then concentrate in its content after using colored highlighters while
reading. Using colored highlighters, it helps the learners to concentrate in reading a text or in
memorizing because colors can help to retain the knowledge you were reading. It also helps to
remember the important part of the text that you’re studying or reading.

Foreign Literature

On a study by Nishimura and Noriaki (2016), using a highlighter while studying can be
easier and more effective by highlighting to help the reader draw their attention to important
information which is a great help to improve the learning skills and it will also save time and effort.

A study of eye movement analysis for investigating learning efficiency by using highlighting
pen Hiko Nishimura, Kazumasa Shibata, Yuki Inazuka, and Noriaki Kuawahara (2016). For learners
including Elementary, Junior High School and Senior High School Students, acquiring an ability to
solve various types of questions in every subject is one of the most important learning objectives.

Local Studies

“ Visual stimulus is crucial in understanding image and color manipulation. Imagines can
be recognized even with low-level features by using own perception and previously learned
concept,” (Oliva, as cited in Maglasang, 2019). Visual image can be retained via visual working
memory and duration of observation but the amount of information still depends upon an image
has because there is a limit called informational load. In a study done by Davenport and Potter, It
must be noted that depending on the background, The perception of an image is changeable.

Color psychology has shown several claims of effects of colors on human cognition
although other factors should be also considered when studying it. The way we see image

2
 The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students
background involves our perception. Colors can be used as an aid to help people retain, Acquire
and comprehend knowledge.

Foreign Studies

In a study done by Yue, Storm, Kornell, and Bjork (2014) in the book ‘Highlighting And Its
Relation To Distributed Study And Students Metacognitive Beliefs’ (2014), “Use of highlighting is a
prevalent study strategy among students, but evidence regarding its benefits for learning is mixed.
We examined highlighting in relation to distributed study and students attitudes about highlighting
as a study strategy. Participants read a text passage twice while highlighting or not, with their
readings either distributed or massed, and followed by a week-delayed test.

An overall benefit of highlighting occurred, with highlighting being especially beneficial with
massed readings of the passages. Importantly, highlighting did not impair knowledge of non-
highlighted information. Interestingly, those students reporting that they did not think highlighting
was beneficial or were unsure about its benefits actually gained more from highlighting than did
students who were pro-highlighting. Overall, our results indicate that under some condition,
highlighting can be a beneficial study strategy for learning and argue for students being trained in
how to optimize the potential benefits of their highlighting behavior”.

Statement of the Problem/Objective of the Study

Below are the problems that the researchers have pointed out in their study. The answers
to the research questions shall be given on the data interpretation.
1. What are the mean scores of pre-test and post-test of both the control group and the
experimental group?
2. Is there any significant difference between the post-test mean scores of both the control
group and the experimental group?
3. Does using Highlighter Markers affects the students memory retention in textual?

Theoretical Framework

Theory of Colours by Goethe (1810)

Goethe linked the color strategies (e.g the plus colors of yellow, red-yellow, yellow-red) to
emotional responding of a person such as warmth and excitement. He also stated that the colors
produce systematical physiological reactions in their emotional experience (e.g negative, arousal),
cognitive orientation (outward, focus) and overt action (e.g forceful behaviour. In terms of learning,
through using this colors which provide cognitive orientation, students can easily process
information and developed it to their learning strategy. Adding to it, the research topic and the
theory is related in terms of the color of the highlighter markers the students (respondent) is going
to use in order for then to easily recognized and attain important details in reading a material
context.

Significance of the Study

This section deals with the beneficiaries of the study.

For the Students, to produce better performance and improve cognitive development.

For the Teachers, to guide the students about the effectiveness of using highlighter markers on
the memory retention.

For the Future researchers, to have in-depth understanding in textual information.

Definition of Terms
This area shows the conceptual and operational meanings from the manuscript.

3
 The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students
 Cognitive Psychology – is the scientific study of mental processes such as “attention,
language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and thinking”
 Control Group – is a group separated from the rest of the experimental such that the
independent variable being tested cannot influence the result
 Experimental Group- the group of respondents wherein the intervention was applied.
 Highlighter – a stationery material used as intervention in the study
 Mean – is the simple mathematical average of a set or two or more numbers.
 Memory retention – is when a person can recall or retain experiences based on the mental
process of recognition or retention of information
 Post-test – a test given to students after completion of an instructional program or segment
and often use in conjunction with a pre-test to measure their achievements and the
effectiveness of the program
 Pre-test – is where a questionnaire is tested (statistically) small sample of respondents
before a full-scale study, in order to identify any problems such as nuclear wording or the
questionnaire taking too long to administer
 Variance - measures how far data are disseminated

Scope and Limitation

This part entails the boundaries of the research.
In relation to the study's title, the researchers conducted an experiment on the Humanities
and Social Sciences (HUMSS) students of Emilio Aguinaldo College-Cavite Senior High School
(EAC-C SHS), who are more exposed at reading and memorizing, in order to know the effectivity
of highlighters in their memory retention. The research process happened within the school year
2019-2020.

Conceptual Framework

Illustrated below is a simple diagram about the study process that the researcher have
done for their research.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

The use of Application of To improve the

highlighter markers highlighters onto its retentive memory of
effects the students

METHODOLOGY

This chapter of the research contains the following sections: Research Design, Sampling
Technique, Research Instrument, Data Gathering Procedure, and Data Analysis Procedures to
expound the distinct procedures and techniques that the researchers used all throughout the
process of researching.

Study Design
This part discusses the research design used in the research.
The researchers employed experimental design, an approach commonly used on
quantitative research, to their study. “An experimental design is a plan for assigning experimental
units to retreatment levels and the statistical analysis associated with the plan,” (Kirk, 1995).

Instrumentation
This section presents the tools to be used during the research process.

4
 The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students
The research instrument refers to devices used to collect data. In this case, the researchers
used the adopt and modify technique to come up with their multiple choice type of questionnaire
as their instrument. The researchers looked for a reading material online and made questions out
of it. Then, the researchers consulted their teacher for any revisions and get validity and reliability.

Sampling Technique
This part presents the number of participants in the study
The study was held at Emilio Aguinaldo College – Cavite. Since the researchers used
experimental design, the data gathering procedure was conducted on thirty (30) respondents, in
accordance with heuristics under the rule of thumb. The participants were acquired through simple
random sampling. The 30 respondents were equally divided into two: a control group, and an
experimental group.

Data Analysis
This part entails the treatment to be used in the research.
Bryman (2006) defined data analysis as “a systematic approach to investigations during
which numerical data is collected and/or the researcher transforms what is collected or observed
into numerical data,” Below are the step that the researchers did to analyze the data collected for
their study:
Step 1: Validation and Reliability
Before distributing the research instruments, the researchers did a validation and reliability
test to ensure that they will give accurate tests to the students. Also, they asked for approval from
their research teacher, who is also one of their consultants, before conducting data gathering.
Step 2: Distribution of Reading Materials, Questionnaires, and Consent
After the research teacher approved the instrument, the researchers went to their target
population to hold the data gathering process through an experiment- the researchers distributed
reading materials corresponding to the questionnaires, together with the consent form.
Step 3: Conduct the Pre-test
For the pre-test, the respondents were individually given a reading material. Then, the
researchers collected the reading materials and gave a 10-item multiple choice questionnaire
about the text that they have read. Each item is equal to one point and in total, the test is
composed of 10 items.
Step 4: Implementation of the Intervention
The experimental group used highlighter markers to use on the reading material while the control
group was provided with none.
Step 5: Conduct the Post-test
The day after the pre-test, the researchers gave the paraphrased version of the prior day's
questionnaires to the respondents. They are also scored with the same way as it is in the pre-test.
Step 6: Data Treatment
After data gathering, the researchers, treated the information they have gathered through
T-test. "A t-test will enable an estimate of whether any differences in means between the two groups
are reflective of differences in the respective populations or are simply due to chance," (Lavrakas,
2008).

Data Gathering Procedure

This part details the procedure that the researchers conducted.
Prior to distribution and approval, the research instrument underwent validation and
reliability tests. Then, researchers equally distributed the questionnaires, together with the reading
material (pre- test) to thirty (30) Grade 12 HUMSS respondents. Attached to these data gathering
tools are the consent forms that serve as proofs that the respondents willingly participated in the
research. Moreover, the researchers provided highlighter markers for 15 respondents
(Experimental Group) that they used as their tool to process information much faster and the other
15 respondents (control group) did not use any highlighter markers in order for the researchers to
know if there is any significant difference on the memory retention of a student if they read a non-
highlighted or highlighted text. After conducting the pre-test, the researchers returned after two

5
 The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students
days to conduct their post-test which consists of 10 questions. After the post- test, the researchers
collected and evaluated the answers of the respondents prior to their answers.

RESULTS

Presentation of Data

Table No.1 Controlled Group

Respondents Pre-test Post-test

1 9 9
2 10 10
3 10 9
4 9 8
5 6 4
6 9 9
7 6 6
8 8 8
9 9 6
10 8 9
11 7 9
12 9 10
13 10 10
14 10 10
15 8 8
Mean Scores 8.53 8.33

The summary table shown above was the results after conducting the pre-test and post-
test in controlled group. After collecting the scores on the pre-test and post-test, the researchers
solved for the mean scores. The mean score determines the middle of a numerical set of data. For
the pre-test, the controlled group gained a mean of 8.53 and they also got 8.33 for the post-test.
The differences of the mean showed that the scores of the respondents decreased after the post-
test.

6
 The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students

Table No.2 Experimental Group

Respondents Pre-test Post-test

1 9 9
2 10 10
3 10 10
4 8 4
5 8 7
6 8 8
7 10 10
8 9 9
9 8 7
10 10 10
11 9 10
12 10 10
13 8 8
14 9 10
15 8 9
Mean Scores 8.93 8.73

The summary table shown above was the results after conducting the pre-test and post-
test in the experimental group. After collecting the scores on the pre-test and post-test, the
researchers solved for the mean scores. For the pre-test and post-test, the experimental group
gained a mean of 8.93 and 8.73, respectively. The differences of the means have showed that the
post-test scores are lower than the pre-test scores.

Discussion and Summary of Findings

Table No. 3 Summary of finding for both Controlled and Experimental Group

Group Statistical Test Pre-test Post-test Decision

Mean 8.53 8.33
Variance 1.84 3.10
Controlled Group
Observations 15 15
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.53
Retain NULL
Mean 8.93 8.73
Variance 0.78 2.92
Experimental Group
Observations 15 15
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.53

The table above shows the results after conducting a two-sample mean t-test treatment on
the previous data gathered. The table recalled the results of the mean from Table 1.0 and Table

7
 The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students
2.0. Furthermore, variance measures how far the data are disseminated. The controlled group
garnered a variance of 1.84 for the pre-test and 3.10 for the post-test. On the other hand, the
experimental group collected a total of 0.78 for the pre-test and 2.92 for the post-test. Moreover,
the observations pertains to the number of respondents that the researchers acquired. In addition,
the two-tailed test results for both controlled group and experimental group are both greater than
0.05 which is equivalent to a decision of retain null. The decision tells that there is no significant
difference whether the students use or do not use highlighter markers to retain information which
is similar to Lindner’s research entitled “Highlighting text as a Study Strategy: Beyond Attentional
Focusing” (1996) wherein they also used highlighters as their dependent variable on their pre-tests
and post-tests but they still acquired equal results in spite of using intervention. To answer the
statement of the problem no.1 which states that 1. What are the mean scores of pre-test and
post-test of both the control group and the experimental group? For the pre-test, the controlled
group gained a mean of 8.53 and they also got 8.33 for the post-test. Moreover the pre-test and
post-test of the experimental group gained a mean of 8.93 and 8.73, respectively. While for the
statement of the problem no. 2 which states that 2. Is there any significant difference between
the post-test mean scores of both the control group and the experimental group? There is
no significant difference between the post-test mean scores of both experimental and control group.
The P-value of both forementioned groups have garnered a total of 0.53 which is equivalent to a
retain null decision since it is higher than 0.05. Lastly, as stated in statement of the problem no.3:
Does using Highlighter Markers affects the students memory retention in textual? Based on
the findings of the researchers, using highlighter markers does not affect the memory retention of
the majority of the Senior High students.

Conclusion
This section closes the gaps of the research paper.
Based on the findings of this present research, the researchers were able to determine and identify
the conclusions that answered the general research questions.

1. For the pre-test, the controlled group gained a mean of 8.53 and they also got 8.33
for the post-test. Moreover the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group gained a mean of
8.93 and 8.73, respectively.
2. There is no significant difference between the post-test mean scores of both
experimental and controlled group. The P-value of both controlled group and experimental group
have garnered a total of 0.53 which is equivalent to retain null decision since it is higher than 0.05.
3. Based on the findings of the researchers, using highlighter markers does not affect
the memory retention of the majority of the Senior High students.

“Highlighting text might be ineffective or even detrimental to learning,” (Dunlosky, 2013). Moreover,
student often do not know how to highlight effectively.

RECOMMENDATION
This part shares the future concerns for the following institution/unit:

Senior High School Students. to be able to acknowledge that they have their own preferred
learning strategies.

Future Researchers. to be a preference and to establish an in-depth studies and or researches.

8
 The Effectiveness Of Highlighter Markers On The Memory Retention Of Senior High School Students

REFERENCES

Bryman, A. (2006). Integrating quantitative and qualitative research: how is it done?

Qualitative Research, 6 (1), pp.97-113.[Online]Retrieved from:

http://archive.learnhigher.ac.uk/analysethis/main/quantitative.html

Elliot A. J. (2015) Color and Psychological Functioning: a Review of theoretical and

empirical framework. Journals of Personality and Social Psychology.

Gonzales, M. M. & Reyes, P. B. (July 2016) Academic Performance and Learning Style of Liberal

Arts Students in physical Science. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences,
03 (03), 28-35.

Kirk, R.E. (1995). Experimental Design: Procedure for the Behavioral Sciences (3rd edn.).

Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Lavrakas, P. J. (2008). Encyclopedia of survey research methods Thousand Oaks,

CA: Sage Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412963947. Retrieved

from:https://methods.sagepub.com/reference/encyclopedia-of-survey-research-
methods/n594.xml

Lindner, R.W., Gordon, W.I., Harris, B.R.(1996). Highlighting Text As A Study Strategy:

Beyond Attentional Focusing. Educational Resources Information Center, Western Illinois

University.

Maglasang, N. & Balmonte-Alonso, J. (2016) Image Color Manipulation and Levels of Prejudice.

The Bedan Journal of Psychology 2016, 01, 109-114.

Nishimura, H., Kuwahara, N. (2017). A Study of Eye Movement Analysis for Investigating

Learning Efficiency by using a Highlighter Pen. International Journal of Advanced

Computer Science and Application, 8 (5) 76-83, 2017, International Conference on Digital
Human Modeling and Application in Health, Safety, Ergonomics and Risk Management,
357-367, 2015 and 576-585, 2016.

Yue, C., Storm, B., Kornell, N., & Bjork, E. (March 2015). Highlighting and Its Relation to

Distributed Study and Students’ Metacognitive Beliefs. Psychology Review, 27 (01), 69-
78.

9
The Effectiveness of Highlighter Markers on the Memory Retention of Senior High School Students

10