E FFECT OF T EXT B ACKGROUND C OLOR O N H OW M ANY N UMBERS A RE R EMEMBERED Andy Lee

P ROBLEM S TATEMENT How does the background color of text affect memory? H YPOTHESES If the background color is white, then more numbers will be memorized. (Null) There will be no difference in results for the different background colors.

B ASIC C ONCEPTS Visual Cortex: Part of the brain that processes information from visual input. See things better with higher contrast (easier to see) Yellow + white=low contrast, hence it is hard to see Short Term Memory Memories decay very fast Must recall this short term memory in order to turn it into long term memory Chunks of information are easily stored instead of large strings is easier then reading

D ESIGN D IAGRAM LEVELS Background Colors BlueGreenRedYellowWhite* Trials20 Dependent Variable: Amount of Numbers Memorized Constants: Color of text, size of card, amount of numbers on card, time allowed to memorize IV: Color of text background

R ESULTS ColorRedYellowBlueGreenWhite Average

D ATA These are the results of 100 tests. Each person did each color, so I only had to get 20 signatures 5x20=100

D ATA ( IN TABLE FORM ) RedYellowBlueGreenWhite

S TATISTICAL A NALYSIS ColorsExpectedObservedO-E(O-E)² E Red Yellow Blue Green White ↑ ↑ ↑ Used this number for my expected because it was the control. χ ² value

G RAPH OF THE AVERAGES Amount of numbers remembered Color of background

C ONCLUSIONS P ART O NE I can accept my null hypothesis. (Null) There will be no difference in results for the different background colors. My p-value was This means.7 < p <.5.

C ONCLUSIONS P ART T WO HOWEVER ColorsExpectedObservedO-E(O-E)² E Red Yellow Blue Green White ↑2.626 The observed value for the white colored background is obviously higher than the rest

S OURCES OF E RROR P ART O NE Color blind people They may not be affected by the colors, making my results insignificant Pressure I would sometimes ask people in a really urgent voice because of my impatience.

S OURCES OF E RROR P ART T WO Patterns It was brought to my attention that one of the numbers was easy to remember Hard? =WW II 1975=Easy year to remember Only leaves 7 numbers to really remember. Background noise Distracted some people

I MPROVEMENTS Can’t do anything for colorblind people. Sorry. Could say in instructions: “Memorize this and when I say stop, repeat it to me,” instead of asking after they were done. Do it in an isolated room Kept the light conditions the same Incandescent/Fluorescent Try to keep patterns out of the numbers, but that would defeat the purpose of having them as random numbers.

E XTENSIONS Effect of text on memory. Effect of talking out loud during memorization on memorization. Test different colors such as purple or orange colorcolor

T HANKS TO All of those who participated. Mrs. P for teaching us Chi-squared analysis. To those who listened to this presentation. Yeah that’s all. Happy 4 th day of 2011 Super small text good job if you read this