The effect of text representation

1. PYY-MQN-YMS-UYU-MUH The effect of text representation on memorization UCX-HGP-HTV-VDU-FLV KHV-FYT-XRT-FTY-HTS

2. Introduction • There are three main types of memory: sensory, short term, and long term. • The short term memory, which is the focus of this experiment, can store an item for roughly 20 seconds. • Short term memory has a limited amount of storage. The most widely accepted amount is 7±2 elements. • An ‘element’ can consist of numbers, words, letters etc.

3. Purpose The purpose of the experiment is to find the best color for displaying text. While the range of applications are limited to computerized displays and items that mainly apply to short term memory, the results can still apply to a wide range of situations. An initial application could be websites: any information that needs to be remembered while someone is navigating, such as directional information and instructions. This can be expanded to games for quickly memorized instructions and directions plus many other related uses.

4. Null Hypothesis There will be no difference in memorization between the differently colored characters

5. import javax.swing.JApplet; import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.Graphics; import java.awt.event.MouseEvent; import java.awt.event.MouseListener; import java.util.*; public class matGen { Random rand = new Random(); char [][][] matrix = new char [3][2][11]; String s; int gx = rand.nextInt(3); int gy = rand.nextInt(2); public static void main( String args[] ){ for( int x = 0; x < 3; x++ ){ for( int y = 0; y < 2; y++ ){ for( int z = 0; z < 11; z++ ){ int dec = rand.nextInt(25) + 65; matrix [x][y][z] = (char)dec; } } } for( int i = 0; i < 100; i++ ){ int ax = rand.nextInt(3); int ay = rand.nextInt(2); int bx = rand.nextInt(3); int by = rand.nextInt(2); int cx = rand.nextInt(3); int cy = rand.nextInt(2); int az = rand.nextInt(11); int bz = rand.nextInt(11); int cz = rand.nextInt(11); System.out.print( matrix [ax][ay][az] ); System.out.print( matrix [bx][by][bz] ); System.out.print( matrix [cx][cy][cz] + "-" ); s += (matrix [ax][ay][az] + matrix [bx][by][bz] + matrix [cx][cy][cz]); } } } Materials • Subjects • Digital projector • Randomly generated letters • Test

6. Procedure • Create groups of randomly generated characters. In this experiment, five groups of three letter-only characters were used. • Display characters on the projector for ten seconds then, remove the characters showing a blank screen for ten seconds. • finally, instruct the subjects to write down as much as they could remember. • Collect and record data.

7. Data

8. Analysis

9. Conclusion Limitations: This project only applied to a rather narrow range of applications and situations. More experiments would be helpful in understanding the effects of color in long term memory, non-computerized display situations, and a wider range of representational options including background, and font-type.

10. Acknowledgements ………………………………………………….