Black-and-White Memory Experiment

Experiment Overview and Hypothesis

• One experiment that's especially easy for kids to perform involves comparing black-and-white memory retention and color memory retention by using a select group of words and testing recall rates. The general hypothesis of the experiment predicts that color memory will have a greater recall rate.

Setup and Procedure

• To control variables, the experimental setup uses an equal set of boys and girls. Give the select groups of students -- divided into equivalent numbers of boys and girls -- a list containing 20 words, divided into colored words and non-colored words to review. Following this, give the same testers a list containing the old words, as well as an equivalent amount of new words. The second list will also contain check boxes, which should be checked if the person recalls the words from the first list.

Results

• With the current setup -- done over the course of one hour -- the experiment should reveal that both boys and girls will have a memory retention greater for colored words compared with black-and-white words; in the above setup, most average close to one word better recall for printed colored words compared to black-and-white words.

Considerations and Variations

• Give careful consideration on several aspects. One includes ensuring the testing conditions are identical when performing the experiment. Also, take care that the words are of roughly the same caliber for both the black and white, as well as colored versions. The colors should be of a broad range, preferably from multiple portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. You can perform several alterations to the experiment. Although the above experiment was done over one hour, you can perform it over one minute, one day and even subsequent weeks. Alternatively, the shapes of words can change, as visual representation has been shown to affect memory.