The Impact of Coloured Alphanumeric Characters on Short-term Memory

Abstract

Colour has become an important part of our lives as it affects our attitudes, and it impacts what we view as ‘attractive.’ Although our ability to see in colour was initially for survival purposes, it has since then been used to organize cognitive and perceptual aspects of our environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of coloured alphanumeric characters on short-term memory. It was hypothesized that participants exposed to red characters will recall those characters more often than those who did not have coloured characters. This hypothesis was not supported: Colour had no impact ont he retention and recall of the characters.