Participants were randomly assigned into one of five color conditions: two were warm colors, two were cool
colors, and the control condition. There were 19 students in the red color condition, 15 in the yellow color condition,
22 in the blue color condition, 25 in the green color condition, and 34 in the white control condition. I also
controlled for English as a first language and color-blindness. I wanted all students to have English as their first
language so there were no differing interpretations on the instructions given.
Each participant received a packet. The first page of the packet had a list of twenty common 1-3 syllable nouns,
such as chair and button. Participants were instructed that they would be given one minute to study these words.
2 Huchendorf UW-L Journal of Undergraduate Research X (2007)
After study, they were then asked to turn the page and work on a 3-digit multiplication task for one minute. The
purpose of the arithmetic task was to keep the participants from rehearsing the words before being asked to recall
them. Then, the next sheet was a blank page on which they were asked to recall as many words as they could. They
were given two minutes to do this. Finally, they filled out a demographic questionnaire.
Both the warm and the cool conditions had two experimental sessions, one for each color. All participants
within each session received the same color packet. In the warm condition, participants received either a red or a
yellow colored packet. In the cool condition, participants received either a blue or a green packet. In the control
condition all participants received a white packet. All of the words in each packet were printed in black ink.