Effect of White and Yellow Background Colour on Short Term Memory: A Cross-over Study

Abstract

Introduction: Colour has a potential influence on learning by improving Short Term Memory (STM) in different settings. Background colours of study materials can have an impact on STM in healthy student population. Enhanced memory can improve academic performance in students. In this study background colour between chromatic/yellow and achromatic/white colours were compared. Aim: To compare the effect of white background black text with yellow (preferential colour chosen via voting by students) background black text of study materials on STM. Materials and Methods: A cross-over study design was conducted in a tertiary care hospital of southern India with an interval of two weeks in October 2018. Two groups of 27 students each were assessed for visual STM using word list recall in a cross-over design study with an interval of two weeks duration. Data was collected as number of words and correct number of words recalled, from the word list. The obtained data was then put to statistical analysis using statistical software IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0. Results: Out of total sample of 54 students, 13 were males and 41 were females. The males and females were comparable with age with p-value of 0.25 which was not statistically significant. The analysis showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the number of words and number of correct words recalled between white and yellow colour backgrounds in both the sessions. There was an overall improvement in the recall of words in both test materials from first session to second session. Conclusion: Chromatic/yellow background colour was no better than the standard achromatic/white background colour. Improvement in the number of words recalled from first session to second session with both colours appeared to be due to carry over effects.