The Effects of Color on Learning and Apprehension-StatsLab

8/13/2019 The Effects of Color on Learning and Apprehension-StatsLab

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The Effects of Color onLearning and Apprehension

Heidi AtStathiExperimental Psychology

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Background:

The psychological impact of color ranges fromaltering our perceptions to changing our emotions,but color is also said to have different effects onmemory and learning. According to research, color isbelieved to greatly enhance humans learningexperience both in classrooms and in daily life. This isdue to our ability to respond and interpret visual

stimuli, which is processed from our eyes andtranslated by the brain.This process effects our bodyfunctions in turn, influencing our mind and emotions.


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It has been proposed that color can be utilized in

such a way, so as to aid in memory formation andconceptual learning for young students. However, as acollege student myself, personal experience has shownthat color still supports stronger memory and greaterapprehension of educational material.

This concept can be tested in various ways, andshould be, in hopes of understanding exactly what

influence the color spectrum elicits in the human brainand how to utilize this response for favorable outcomesin school and in daily life. The following experiment is

set up for this purpose. 3

Background:


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Experimental Design:

The experiment will be administered as a within subjectsdesign, where the same group of participants will bepresented with 2 versions of the same text to read, directlyfollowed by questions related to the text to complete. Theywill be graded on the precision and accuracy of their answersin both trials (Color text and questions/ Black and White textand questions):

The experimental trial will feature the text printed in variouscolors (red, green, and blue randomly) on yellow paper. Thecontrol trial will feature plain black text on white paper.

The participants will then have to take a short assessment tomeasure their apprehension of the material in both trials,where the 10 questions asked about the reading will slightlyvary in articulation between the color and noncolor trial.

Both versions of the questions will have the same level of ease/difficulty but are differentiated in order to fairly assessperformance in both trials.


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I) Results are expected to demonstrate a higher

over all score of correct answers in the color-text

trial, as well as higher overall accuracy and precisionin which the questions are answered.

II) Furthermore, it may be of interest to

determine whether reaction times in the Color-texttrial for completing the reading and answering thequestions are faster or slower than the reactiontimes in the black and white text trial, however this

is not the primary variable of interest for thisexperiment. Here, the score of questions answeredcorrectly and how precise the answers were will beused to assess the level of understanding and

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The Effects of Color on Learning and Apprehension-StatsLab

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