The Effect of Music and Background Color on Memory

Presented to the Faculty of

Bachelor of Science Major in Psychology

College of Arts and Sciences

University of the Cordilleras

Psych 108: Experimental Psychology

8:45-12:30 MWF

Submitted to:

Maam Gene Balinggan

Submitted by:

Amadi, Esther

Antonio, Danise

Bedania, Jeramae

Fuentebella, Ashbel

Lee, Gi Seon

Racca, Ma.Edarlee

Ybaez, Alexis Kevin

March 27, 2017

I. Title: The Effect of Music and Background Color on Memory

II. Introduction

Memory makes us. If we couldn't recall the who, what, where, and when of our
everyday lives, we wouldn't be able to function. While memorization is the process of
committing something to memory. In this experiment, we will test the effect of music
and background color--- which is the color of the paper used, on memory.

Listening to music is a common past time among many people, more so for
students and younger people who listen to music while they are studying. Early in the
1990s, an experiment known as Mozart effect was conducted that seemed to link
listening to classical music on memory improvement. the result states that it is
entirely possible that the music simply opened up the brain for the spatial reasoning
test. According to Klemm, that in jazz, mental enrichment enhances the ability to
memorize, not only directly in terms of having to learn a large musical vocabulary
and the rules of jazz, but also in terms of basic mental biology.

Color is believed to be the most important visual experience to human beings. It

functions as a powerful information channel to the human cognitive system and has
been found to play a significant role in enhancing memory performance (Malays,
2013). Wichmann, Sharpe, and Gegenfurtner found a clear advantage of colour on
visual memory. A significant interaction was found among colored than those in black
and white.

This experiment aims to find out whether music when paired with background
color affects the human memory. The genre of music used were classical and jazz,
while the color of papers used were blue and yellow.

III. Statement of the Problem:

This experiment aims to discover the effect of music and background color on the
memory of the students. The music is either classical or jazz in genre while the
background color is either blue or yellow.
IV. Statement of Hypothesis:

Ha: There is a significant effect of music and background color on memory

Ho: There is no significant effect of music and background color on memory

V. Variables:
Independent Variable:
Music Classical or Jazz
Background Color Blue or Yellow

Dependent Variable:

Memory

Extraneous Variable:

Noise. The noise was lessened through controlling the voice of the
experimenter and the noise made by people inside the laboratory.
 Comfort of the respondent. Comfort affects the memorization of the
respondent so the experimenter, as far as possible, made the environment
comfortable.

VI. Methods:
a. Participants:
This experiment consists of 32 respondents, whom are college students of the
University of the Cordilleras. The sex, age, and course were disregarded in this
experiment.

b. Apparatus/Material:
In this experiment, we used a blue colored paper, a yellow colored paper, a
cell phone and a headphone.

c. Procedure:
1. In this experiment, 32 respondents were asked to participate. They are all
college students of the University of the Cordilleras.
2. The 32 respondents were randomly divided into four groups.
3. The first group listened to a classical music while memorizing a tongue
twister that was written on a blue colored paper. The second group listened
to the same genre of music but memorized the tongue twister that was
written on a yellow colored paper. The third group listened to a jazz music
while memorizing the tongue twister on a blue colored paper. And the
fourth group listened to a jazz music while memorizing into a yellow
colored paper.
4. The four groups consist of eight students each.
5. The respondents were asked to memorize a tongue twister for one minute
while listening to a music, either classical or jazz and the background
 color of the paper, which where the tongue twister was written was either
blue or yellow.
6. Afterwards, the respondents were asked to dictate the tongue twister that
they memorized.
7. The score of 1, 2 or 3 were given.
8. 1 for those who memorized one to five words, 2 if they memorized six to
15 words, and three for those who memorized 15 to 20 words. The tongue
twister consists of 20 words.
VII. Results and Findings

Blue Yellow
X1 X1 X2 X2
3 9 3 9
1 1 1 1
1 1 2 4
Classical

3 9
1 1
2 4
1 1
2 4
X1 = 14 X1 = 30 X2 = 18
X3 X3
1 1
1 1
1 1
2 4
Jazz
3 9
3 9
2 4
2 4
2 4
X2 = 44
X4 X4
1 1
3 9
2 4
2 4

2 4 2 4
2 4 2 4
2 4 2 4
1 1 3 9
X3 = 12 X3 = 20 X4 = 21 X4 = 39

SSB = 2.85
SS1 = 2.53
SS2 = 0.28
SS1X2 = 0.04
SSW = 13.87 > 2.95 0.05 Significant

As shown by the computations, the effect of music and background color on

memory of the students is over all significant.

VIII. Conclusion

There is main effect of music and background color on the memory of the students.

Factor 1: Color
X1 X2
There was no significant difference between those who read on the blue
colored paper while listening to classical music as compared to their counterparts
who read on the yellow colored paper while listening to the same genre of music.

X3 X4
 Those who read on the yellow colored paper while listening to a jazz
music had significantly scored higher than those who read on the blue colored
paper while listening to jazz music.

Factor 2: Background Color

X1 X3
There was no significant difference between those who read on the blue
colored paper while listening classical music as compared to their counterparts
who read on the yellow paper while listening to jazz music.
X2-X4
There was no significant difference between those who read on the yellow
colored paper while listening to classical music as compared to their
counterparts who read on the yellow colored paper while listening to jazz
music.

Interaction

X1 X4
There was no significant difference between those who read on blue paper
while listening to a classical music as compared to their counterparts who read
on a yellow colored paper while listening to a jazz music.
X2 X3
There was no significant difference on those who read on yellow colored
paper while listening to classical music as compared to their counterpart who
read on a blue colored paper while listening to jazz music.

IX. Recommendation

1. With the result, we recommend that

2. To make this experiment better the next time, we recommend that the passage
that will be given is better when it is longer because this would really test the
respondents memory.
3. And also, the color of paper that is to be used must be researched first and
decided properly. The colors must really affect the memory.

X. References

Klemm, W. (2014). What jazz music can do for the brain. Psychology Today.
Retrieved on March 24, 2017 from https://www.psychologytoday.com

Huchendorf, L. (2007). The effects of color on memory. Semantics Scholar.

Retrieved on March 24, 2017 from https://www.semanticsscholar.org

Dzulkifli, M. & Mustafar, M. (20). The influence of colour on memory performance:

A review. Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences. Retrieved on March 24, 2017
from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC37439334/

Stephens, T. (2010). The effects of classical and rock music on memory. California
State University. Retrieved on March 26, 2017 from https://cssf.usc.edu/Hisory
/2010/Projects/J0631.pdf

Wichmann FA, Sharpe LT, & Gegenfurtner KR (2002). The contributions of color to
recognition memory for natural scenes. Pub Med. Retrieved on March 26, 2017
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3743993/