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General Psychology Science Fair Project

Flash Card Color and Memory Recall

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Flash Card Color and Memory Recall | Science Fair Projects | STEM Projects
Does the color of a flash card change how well you remember what is on it? You prepare four sets of 20 flash cards colored red, yellow, blue, and green. Ten participants view each set one card at a time for 10 seconds per card. After each set you give them 10 minutes to write down what they recall. A 30-minute rest separates each round. The results show no significant difference in recall between any of the four colors.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that coloring flash cards will not help to improve memory retention and recall.

Science Concepts Learned

Color Psychology

Color psychology predicts that colors change how people think, but that influence has limits. When participants study flash cards colored red, yellow, blue, and green, no single color improves recall over the others. This result shows that color does not always change how the brain stores and retrieves information.

Method & Materials

You will have 10 participants look at four sets of 20 flash cards each, colored with different colors. After looking at each card for 10 seconds, they will have 10 minutes to recall what they saw and write it down.
You will need 10 participants, 80 flash cards, 4 crayons, 40 sheets of paper, 10 pens, and a stopwatch.

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Results

The results showed that there was no significant difference in memory retention for any of the four sets of colored cards. This proves that the hypothesis is true, and coloring flash cards does not help to improve memory retention and recall.

Why do this project?

This science project is interesting because it tests a common belief that coloring can help with memory retention.

Also Consider

Experiment variations include using colored words instead of pictures, and using naturally colored photos.

Full project details

Additional information and source material for this project are available below.

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