The purpose of this
experiment was to determine the effect of background paper color on the reading
speed of 7th grade students.
I became interested in this idea because my mother worked as a Para-optometric assistant and I became curious about the human eye and how vision occurred.
The information gained from this experiment could help educators know how color affects reading so they could use materials that students could read and understand best. Also it could help advertisers know whether various colors of backgrounds on signs and billboards are harder to read and understand.
My first hypothesis was
that seventh graders would be able to read a passage printed on a white
background faster than any of the other colors tested.
My second hypothesis was that seventh graders would read a passage printed on a blue background more slowly than any of the other colors tested.
I based my hypothesis on an interview with Dr. Dale Graf, my eye doctor, who said that “the color that was mildest to the eye would be easiest to see.” I think white is lightest and mildest to the eye.
EXPERIMENT DESIGN
The constants in this study were:
The testing environment
(lighting, noise level, desk size and pacing, etc.)
- The amount of
time for reading each story
- The number of
boys
- The number of
girls
- The reading
level of the tests (5th grade approximately)
- The grade of
the students
The manipulated
variable was the color of background paper the stories were printed on.
The responding variable was the reading speed of the student (number of words read in 1 minute.)
To measure the responding variable, I counted the number of words each student read aloud in one minute.
QUANTITY
|
ITEM
DESCRIPTION
|
4
|
different stories of
roughly equal reading difficulty
|
40
|
sheets green copy paper
|
40
|
sheets red copy paper
|
40
|
sheets white copy paper
|
1
|
stop watch
|
40
|
sheets blue copy paper
|
1
|
copy machine
|
2
|
desks and chairs in one
unused classroom
|
1. Obtain subjects
A) Send permission slips home with students
B) List only those students who return parent permission slips
C) Randomly assign boys to Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4.
D) Randomly assign girls to the same Groups: 1, 2, 3, and 4.
E) Groups should be as nearly equal in size as possible.
2. Create reading tests
A) Obtain four 5th grade reading level reading tests from a reading teacher.
B) Print each test on each color of paper: red, blue, green, white.
3. Create staggered testing schedule
A) Each group needs to take each test, but using a different color
B) Each group needs to take the tests in a different order.
4. Conduct test with one student
A) Bring student to classroom
B) Explain experiment and answer questions
C) Use staggered testing schedule to determine what test/color combinations to use with this student and in which order.
D) Using a stop watch, time the student for exactly 1 minute as he or she reads the story out loud.
E) Record number of words read at end of one minute
F) Repeat steps 4 C-E for the remaining three colors using the testing schedule to make sure the correct story is used (to avoid reading a story more than one time).
5. Repeat testing in step 4 for all other students in that group.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for all other groups of students
7. Average results for each color.
8. Compare averages.
The original purpose of
this experiment was to determine the effect of background paper color on the
reading speed of 7th grade students.
The results of the experiment were that reading scores were very similar for all colors. However, the background color blue proved to be the easiest color to read on with 156.9 words per minute average. The background color white proved hardest to read with an average of 154.9 words per minute. Green was slightly better than white with 155.8 words per minute. Red was slightly better than green with 156.5 words.
My
first hypothesis was that seventh graders would be able to read a passage
printed on a white background faster than any of the other colors tested.
My
second hypothesis was that seventh graders would read a passage printed on a
blue background more slowly than any of the other colors tested.
The
results indicate that both hypotheses should be rejected, because the subjects
read the passages printed on blue paper fastest (by a tiny margin), and they
read the passage printed on white paper the slowest. The size of the
difference between groups is very small so further research would be necessary
to make any definite evaluation of the hypotheses.
After
thinking about the results of this experiment, I wonder about the effect of
colored backgrounds on visual acuity. In other words, does the background
make it harder for the eye to see clearly?
If I
were to conduct this project again I would improve by having more subjects. I
would use more colors, including gray (because of the print background
contrast). Also I would use longer reading passages that are at least 3-5
minutes long.
Researched
by ---- Morgan M
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