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Topic: The influence of colour on learning and memory

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Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................3

Method.......................................................................................................................................................4

Participants............................................................................................................................................4

Material..................................................................................................................................................4

Procedure:..............................................................................................................................................4

Results........................................................................................................................................................4

Discussion...................................................................................................................................................5

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 The influence of colour on learning and memory

Introduction
Memory refers to the mental encoding, preservation and retrieval process (Dzulkifli & Mustafar,
2013).Work memory is an exciting field of psycholinguistics and yet it undergoes some complex
learning processes in finding diverse images, colour and terminology. Still, the process is more
complex when colour is taken into account as an external stimulus for memory in adult and child
learning processes (Khan & Liu, 2020). Color is said to be human beings' most significant visual
experience. It works as a strong information canal for the human cognitive system and has
played an important role in improving memory performance. Color can be highly useful in
education, business, communication or even sports (Dzulkifli & Mustafar, 2013). According to a
research at the University of British Columbia, some colour might contribute to focus, care and
therefore to retention of memory and education. The study revealed that the hues red and blue
are the most effective way to improve cognitive abilities and brain function (Olesen, 2018).

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Memory is influenced by various things. in my study I will discuss about age, gender and culture
of the individuals. First of all, you experience physiological changes as you grow older that may
lead to brain failures that you have always taken for granted. It takes longer to study and gain
expertise. You're not as quick as you used to be. This deceleration of your brain processes may
actually be misinterpreted for a genuine loss of memory. (St. Martin et al., 2014). Secondly,
culture affects what you think is important around you," says Angela Gutchess, an Assistant
Psychology Professor at Brandeis University. "If your culture encourages social connections, you
better remember these encounters than a civilization that emphasizes individual views. Indeed,
culture affects your memory" (Briggs, n.d)

Thirdly, the gender, previous research indicates that the memory of men and women vary with
gender-stereotyped things. Gender theory has been suggested to explain gender memory recall
variances (Cherney & Ryalls, 1999). (Cherney and Ryalls, 1999). Gender schema theory
specifically suggests that gender standards have a significant impact on memory. According to
this theory, men and women should remember the same amount of information as men, but
women should remember more feminine stimuli than men, and men should remember male
stimuli rather than female stimuli. This perspective was mostly supported by research. For
example, Hellmann and Crawford (1992) examined gender differences in the performance of
everyday memory. They found that women remembered more stereotypically feminine things,
such as food items, than men did(Trumpeter & Weathington, 2006).

Previous research (e.g. Hanna & Remington, 1996) show that colour can enhance the
effectiveness of learners to instantly recover a large amount of information and knowledge
productivity (e.g. colloquia, phrases and languages). Color can also improve student attention
and lift their memory recall and recognition levels (Dzulkifli & Mustafar, 2013). Singg and Mull
(2017) also suggested that the colour learning effect is based on the sex category, i.e. red and
yellow can have a stronger effect on men, whereas cooler colour such as blue may have a greater
role in women.

The current research report discusses the influence of colour on learning and human memory in
two groups with a different backdrop on which words, yellow and white, are printed.). The
present study hypothesizes that if the importance of participants differs in the capacity to recall
words in Group A (learning words in white backdrop) Vs Group B Group (learning the words on

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yellow background). In this research independent variable is the background colour on which
words are written and dependent variable is memory and learning.

Method

Participants
The sample consisted of 61 participant which was the sum of total of group A (learnings
words on white background) and group B( learning group on yellow background). Participants
include 31 males and 29 females. In general ,The participant age ranges from 16-23 years (M=
18.45, SD= 1.41).The hour of sleep of participants ranges from 4-10 hours (M=6.85, SD= 1.35).
The language mostly used by all participant is Chinese.

The sample consisted of two groups. Group A consisted of 20 males and 12 females. Their age
ranges from 16-23 (M=18.43, SD=1.48).Their hour of sleep ranges from 5-10 (M=7.01,
SD=1.18). The number of words recall by participants range from 5-20 (M=12.84, SD=3.05).
Group B consisted of 11 males and 17 females. Their agr ranges from 16-21 (M=18.54, SD=
1.37) and their hour of sleep ranges from 4-9 (M=6.68, SD= 1.52). The number of words recalled
by the participants range from 5-20 (M=13.54, SD= 4.07).

Material
Participants were randomly assigned into one of the two colour conditions. There were 28
participants in group A ( with white background) and Group B ( with yellow
background).participants were seated comfortably on the chairs.

Procedure:
Form contains information age, gender, hour of sleep, language and country where they live was
filed by the participants. 20 number of words are written of board with white and yellow
background. Participants in each group were given 5 minutes to study these words, after that
participants start recalling the word one by one. Mostly the participants belong to group with
yellow background facing recalling issues. Number of words were written on page by
participants itself. Forms were collected from participants.

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 Results
Memory of participants was measured and mean was calculated. An alpha level of 0.05 was used
for all statistical test. The average score (M=12.84, SD= 3.04) of participants who learnt words
on white background.(variation A) and the average score (M=13.54, SD= 4.07) Of the
participants who learnt on yellow background(variation B).

As our hypothesis is to find the significance difference between two groups to identify the
influence of colour on memory and learning, we need to know the significance difference
between these score if it is significant. We do this by running a t-test.

T-test

28 Participants of Group B who learnt words of yellow background (M=13.29, SD=15.54) was
compared to the 32 participants of Group A who learnt words on white background (M= 1.81,
SD=7.49) was significantly score higher t(56)=-1.6, p=0.04.

So, as p is smaller than alpha, so there is significant difference in memory and learning in group
B using the color yellow then the Group A using the colour white.

Discussion
It is confirmed that there is a there is significant difference in memory and learning in group B
using the color yellow then the Group A using the colour white. Our hypotheses was that if the
importance of participants differs in the capacity to recall words in Group A (learning words in
white backdrop) Vs Group B Group (learning the words on yellow background).Our hypothesis
is accepted.

The findings of the current study compared to the study of Miller's theory of constant (7 +/- 2),
demonstrate that the mean number of words recalled in the present study is within the range
predicted as "average" in Article Millers 1956. One group did not lay considerably outside
Miller's continuous range on any end of Miller's range (1956). Farley and Grant (1976)
discovered that colour slide presentations stayed in the consciousness of the participants longer
than the comparable black and white presentation. In the current study, a substantial difference
was revealed in the number of words recalled, whether it was more or less words recalled,

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between reading a word list in yellow or white. The discrepancy between the results of the
current study and Farley and Grant (1976) might imply that colored and black and white images
can take different lengths of time to be retrievable than plain text in black tints.

There were also Many extraneous variables that effect the results of the experiment. More
generally, the results may be skewed by sampling procedures. Noise was found at the exterior of
the experimental room, furthermore only participants of the younger were included between the
ages of 16 and 23. To generalize this study, participants are too less. In a wider variety of
populations, future researchers should try to reproduce these results. It is also essential that the
number of participants, male and female, be equal or nearly equal. In future study, a more
sophisticated image page may also be utilized. Many alternatives may be investigated such as
utilizing numerous image pages where picture types stay constant, but their position on the page
is modified to manage the impact of the object identification.

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 References

Briggs, J. (n.d.). How Culture Affects Memory. Www.rw-3.com. https://www.rw-

3.com/blog/2013/12/how-culture-affects-memory#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIf%20your%20culture
%20values%20social
Dzulkifli, M. A., & Mustafar, M. F. (2013). The Influence of Colour on Memory Performance: A
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3743993/#:~:text=Colour%20helps%20us
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Khan, J., & Liu, C. (2020). The impact of colors on human memory in learning English collocations:
evidence from south Asian tertiary ESL students. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign
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Olesen, J. (2018, August 13). How Does Color Affect Memory? Color-Meanings.com.
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Trumpeter, N., & Weathington, B. (2006a). Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation
Recommended Citation Baer. Modern Psychological Studies, 12(1), 3.
https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=mps#:~:text=Past%20research
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Trumpeter, N., & Weathington, B. (2006b). Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation
Recommended Citation Baer. Modern Psychological Studies, 12(1), 3.
https://scholar.utc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=mps#:~:text=Past%20research
%20suggests%20that%20males