Memory Retention When Reading on Black-&-White or Colored

Background

Katherine DyerJessica JackyraMark LimbersKenneth ReaumeKaitlyn Trejo

University of North Carolina Wilmington

Tested for differences in memory recall

30 participants (ages 18-41) randomly assigned to one of two conditions

Plain or color background followed by 5 question short answer quiz

No evidence to support hypothesis

Abstract

What is a presentation of information?

◦ Providing information on a topic to another person

◦ Main goal of a presentation is to educate someone on a topic so that they understand it better

◦ Examples: advertisements, pamphlets, PowerPoint, posters, etc.

Introduction

Daily exposure to loads of information

Relevance to many areas

Always changing

The factors involved in presentation of information have been a focus of study for decades

Why study the effects of presentation?

Effects of presentation on ability to recall information from a consent form

Narrated video, computer presentation, or reading material

Free recall and test

No significant ability to recall information based on method it was presented in

Campbell et al.

Presented college students with information about viruses

High interest and low interest groups

PowerPoint vs. booklet vs. animation

Asked questions about info presented to them

Flashier presentations and high-interest facts impaired ability to apply information

Mayer et al.

Information about negotiating presented

Manipulated the font, style, and background

Font and style did not affect recall, but complex backgrounds limited information recall

Larson et al.

Information about a lab’s functions and characteristics presented

Manipulated the presentation (black and white vs. color)

Gave participants multiple choice test directly after presentation and 1 week later

Color increased performance on both tests

Farley et at.

◦ Mixed results seen in past experiments

◦ Exposure to tons of information delivered through specific types of presentations

◦ Discover if there is a truly better way to present large amounts of information at one time

Why Did We Want to Study This?

To determine if the black and white or color PowerPoint presentation is better for recalling the information presented

There will be a difference in ability to recall information when presented in Black and White or Color presentations

Goal: Hypothesis:

Participants

30 participants were used in this study

All were native English speakers with ethnicity nor race

considered

Age ranged from 18-41 with a mean age of 23.73 years (SD =

6.0)

Compensation

Methods

Materials

Computer to display either condition 1 or condition 2

PowerPoint story with either color background or black and white

background

Coin with heads and tails on it for random assignment

Questionnaire with 5 questions related to the story and demographics

Methods Cont.

Slides

Procedure

Participants were chosen from a convenience sample

Prospective participants were asked to participate in a brief experiment

A coin was flipped in order to randomly assign participant

Participant was asked to read a story presented on a computer

Participant was then asked to answer the 5 questions on the

questionnaire

Participants were thanked for their time

Methods Cont.

Levene’s test was conducted to test equality of variance and was not significant, F = 0.97, p=.33.

We continued to do an independent t-test to compare the means of the plain and color conditions.

The t-test showed there was no significant difference between the plain and color conditions when analyzing memory recall, t(28) = 0.88,p=.39.

Results

Condition

Plain Color

n M (SD) 95% CI n M (SD) 95% CI

Number

Correct17 3.47(1.33)

(-

0.52,1.31)13 3.08(1.04)

(-

0.52,1.31)

Note. CI = confidence interval.

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Plain Color

Nu

mb

er

Co

rrect

Condition

Past research has had mixed results◦ Better recall, worse recall, or no effect

We tested for a significant difference in either direction (two-tail)◦ Either better recall or worse recall

For our results, neither direction had significant differences

Discussion

Small number of participants ◦ 30

Only some demographics were gathered◦ Age, Gender

No time limit set to reading the story

Convenience sample

Participant’s ages skewed towards early 20’s◦ (M = 23.73)

Only 1 color was tested within the Color condition◦ Shades of Blue

Limitations

What would happen if a variety of different colors were tested?

What if education level was taken into account

If heavily contrasting colors were used together ◦ Red on Green

What if participants were given a set amount of time to read

Further Questions

Campbell, F. A., Goldman, B. D., Boccia, M. L., & Skinner, M. (2004). The effect of format modifications and reading comprehension on recall of informed consent information by low-income parents: A comparison of print, video, and computer-based presentations. Patient Education and Counseling, 53, 205-216. DOI: 10.1016/S0738-3991(03)00162-9

Farley, F. H. & Grant, A. P. (1976). Arousal and cognition: Memory for color versus black and white multimedia presentation. The Journal of Psychology, 94, 147-150. DOI 10.1080/00223980.1976.9921410

Larson, R. B. (2004). Slide composition for electronic presentations. J. Educational Computing Research, 31 (1), 61-76.DOI: 10.2190/5T0H-9Y7B-B134-68A2

Mayer, R. E., Griffith, E., Jurkowitz, I. T. N., & Rothman, D. (2008). Increased interestingness of extraneous details in a multimedia science presentation leads to decreased learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 14 (4), 329-339. DOI: 10.1037/a0013835

References