Running head: THE INFLUENCE OF COLORED PAPER 1

The Influence of Colored Paper and Font Type on Mood, Retention, and Memory

Abigail Floriano

Catawba College

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Psychology 2222, Experimental

Psychology

4/12/2020

On my honor, I Abigail Floriano have not violated the honor code in completing this work.
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Abstract

We examined if the color of paper (pink, blue) and the font type (comic, regular) would

have an effect on participants mood, retention, and memory. Participants were submitted

randomly into different blocks. The participants completed a retention task in which they

answered recall questions about the two-page excerpt and also completed ACT math practice

questions ranging from word problems to equations. Participants also completed two self-reports,

a self-report on how happy they were with their performance, with low scores being happier and

a self-report on their mood that day, with high scores being a great mood. The results showed

that when participants had a blue paper and regular font , they reported better scores in the

retention task and a better mood than participants in the other blocks. The results imply that blue

and regular font had a positive response from participants who had these elements included in

the present study.

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The Influence of Colored Paper and Font Type on Mood, Retention, and Memory

Does color and font have an effect on mood, retention, and memory? This study will

examine how participants’ mood, retention of information, and memory of information is

affected by the color of the paper and font chosen for the tasks they are given.

People often associate colors with emotions and this type of association can be seen as early as

childhood (Gil & Bigot, 2016). Certain colors tend to have certain emotions attached to them

(Wexner, 1954) and often red is associated with a negative feeling such as bad (Gil & Bigot,

2016), angry (Leichsenring, 2004), or hostile (Wexner, 1954). Other studies in regard to colors

having an emotion and/or mood associated with it, discovered that even people with

psychological disorders can even have colors associated with emotions, especially when it comes

to the color red (Leichsenring, 2004). According to a study done by Wexner (1954), certain

colors are often chosen more often for certain mood-tones and emotions, but they had also

explained that certain hues of a color can change the emotion attached to that color. He explains

that if another study were to replicate his study, they would have to have to the exact color hues

they had used in order to come out with similar results. He explains that depending on how rich

the color is in saturation it can change its mood-tone (i.e., a purple shade being not deemed

powerful because it was not a deep purple Wexner, L. B., 1954).

Colors can aid in memory and recall tests (Finn, White, & Abdelbagi, 2011; Kuhbandner

& Pekrun, 2013). Colors can especially aid in memory and recall tests if those colors have an

association to an emotion like the color red being associated with a negative mood (Kuhbandner

& Pekrun, 2013). Gil and Bigot (2016) share similar associations with the color red being a

‘negative color’. Finn et al. (2011) argued that color only helps depending on how the participant
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used color to recall information. Participants had used paint to map out organs when learning

anatomy. The participants who painted the anatomy parts did better in recalling than the people

being painted on.

Colors are stereotyped for both genders. Pink is often associated with little girls and blue

is associated with boys (Jonauskaite, Dael, Chevre, Althaus, Tremea, Charalambides, & Mohr,

2018). Other researchers in this area (Yeung & Wong, 2018) also presented data that Western

ideals of stereotyped colors for sex can even be seen in children in another country, just by

associating a gender label to a color. For example, Wong and Hines (2015) showed that children

were more inclined to gravitate towards their designated color, but it was discovered that with

their parents, both women and men, gravitated towards the color blue. Similarly, Jonauskaite,

Dael, Chevre, Althaus, Tremea, Charalambides, & Mohr (2018) found results where adult men

and women found the color blue as their favorite color, not really being a gendered color.

In sum, colors can have indications on mood-tones and can also have underlying positive

and negative emotions attached to them. Although colors are also seen as not being so helpful in

the retention of information, only a small helpful tool depending on how one uses it to study (i.e.,

being the painter instead of being the canvas Finn et al., 2011). The purpose of this study is to

examine if color can affect one’s mood and how well it can help in the retention and

memorization of information. I hypothesized that the blue colored paper would be superior to

pink and normal font would have participants perform better than comic font in the memory and

retention activities.

Method

Participants and Design

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A total of 48 participants volunteered or received course credit to participate. Each

participant was assigned randomly to read and memorize a short story that was printed on pink or

blue paper and include either comic or regular font. The manipulations therefore yield a 2 x 2

(Pink/Blue Paper x Comic/Normal Font between-subjects design). All participants filled out a

consent form in advance of the study.

Stimulus Materials

The stimulus a two-page excerpt (“Smelling a dog”) from “Inside of a Dog: What Dogs

See, Smell, and Know-young readers edition” by Alexandra Horowitz. The excerpt was

presented on either blue or pink paper, with either comic or normal font. This excerpt can be

found in Appendix A.

Dependent Measures

Participants read over the excerpt for their designated block then answered the recall

questions (i.e., “On a windy day why might dogs get friskier?”). The participants submitted their

answers they had filled out on paper to the reviewer. The questions are located in Appendix B.

Participants completed ACT math practice questions. The math questions ranged from

word problems to equations. The participants submitted their answers they had filled out on

paper to the reviewer when they complete the math questions. The multiple response questions

can be found in Appendix C.

In order to examine whether participants were happy with their performance on the given

retention task, participants were given self-reports to report how they felt. The self-reports were

taken on 7-point bipolar scales with opposite-meaning endpoints measuring how happy

participants are with their performance (1 very happy to 7 not happy at all), and their mood that

day (1 bad mood to 7 great mood). A free-write was also administered to participants asking the
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question: where do you see yourself in 5 years? The free-write will be analyzed where higher

satisfaction rates and happier moods will be related to participants who had blue paper and comic

font.

Procedure

We told participants that they are to complete various academic tasks. After obtaining

consent, our participants completed the retention of the short excerpt, taking as much time as

they need. Then I removed the story and had participants complete the memory test, then the

ACT, and math practice questions. Following those, they provided self-report data and the free

write. Participants were then debriefed and dismissed.

Results

In order to examine whether the color of paper and the font type lead to better retention

of the two-page excerpt, the number of correct answers was used as a dependent variable in a 2 x

2 (Paper Color x Font Type) ANOVA. The means and CIs from this analysis are plotted in

Figure 1. There was a main effect of paper color, F(1, 52) = 4.45, MSE = 3.11, p = .40, 2 = .07,

as the mean number of correct answers from participants who had blue paper (M = 5.64, SD =

2.20) was higher than those who had pink paper (M = 4.89, SD = 1.91). There was also a main

effect of font type, F(1, 52) = 19.54, p < .001, 2 = .273. The mean number of correct answers

from participants who had comic font (M = 4.31, SD = 1.61) was fewer than those who were in

the regular font (M = 6.30, SD = 2.05) group. The interaction had no effect F(1, 52) = 2.28, p = .

137.

In order to examine whether the color of paper and the font type lead to better test scores

in the math portion of the study, the number of correct answers was used as a dependent variable

in a 2 x 2 (Paper Color x Font Type) ANOVA. The means and standard deviations can be seen in
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Table 1. There was no effect for paper color, F(1, 52) = .792, MSE = 1.92, p = .378. There was

no effect for the type of font used, F(1, 52) = .674, p = .415. The interaction had no significance,

F(1, 52) = .293, p = .590.

In order to examine whether the color of paper and the font type led to participants being

happy, low scores were used as a dependent variable in 2 x 2 (Paper Color x Font Type)

ANOVA. The means and standard deviations can be seen in Table 1. There was no effect for

paper color, F(1, 52) = .716, MSE = 1.57, p = .401 and there was no effect for font type, F(1, 52)

= .782, p = .381. The interaction had no effect, F(1, 52) = .124, p = .726.

In order to examine whether the color of paper and the font type led to a great mood, high

scores were used as dependent variable in 2 x 2 (Paper Color x Font Type) ANOVA. The means

and standard deviations can be seen in Table 1. There was a main effect in paper color, F(1, 52)

= 8.07, MSE = 3.12, p = .006, 2 = .134. The mean number of participants who had pink paper

(M =3.54, SD = 1.67) had a lower score than participants who had blue paper (M = 4.79, SD =

1.93). There was also a main effect in font type, F(1, 52) = 4.24, p = .044, 2 = .075. The mean

number of high scores in the comic font (M = 3.76, SD = 1.62) group was much lower than those

in the regular font (M = 4.59, SD = 2.10) group.

Discussion

The results showed that participants who had blue paper and regular font had higher

scores in the retention of the two-page excerpt and also had great moods, confirming my

hypothesis that the color blue and regular font would be superior in the study. The color blue

being a popular color with participants is consistent with Jonauskaite, Dael, Chevre, Althaus,

Tremea, Charalambides, & Mohr’s (2019) study where women, men , and boys all gravitated

towards the color blue, even though the researchers had said that girl’s would prefer the color
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pink, my study mostly consisted of women in college. A similar consistency in blue being a

popular color with great moods is with Wexner (1954) in that moods that were uplifting (i.e.,

calm, peaceful, serene, tender, soothing, secure, comfortable) were paired with the color blue.

Although my hypothesis was confirmed the present experiment could be more complex

to explore different aspects my research had consisted of. Wexner (1954) included that certain

hues of the same color can have a different mood-tone associated with them. If the hues of the

colors were accounted for and changed ever so slightly the outcome could be different and could

have affected the participants moods. In this study, I did not include the sex of the participants

compared to previous research. If the sex of the participants were included, there could have

been information as to how many male and females gravitated towards a certain color and if that

color were the stereotyped color assigned to the participants gender. In sum, my findings

contribute further our understanding how colored paper and font type can affect mood, retention,

and memory when it comes to college students.

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References

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Gil, S. & Bigot, L. L. (2016). Colour and emotion: Children also associate red with negative

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(2019). Pink for girls, red for boys, and blue for both genders: Colour preferences in

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