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Purpose/Question: How does light intensity effect the short term memory of students in highschool?

By: Fiona Palazzi

Hypothesis: If the light intensity in a room is very high(very bright), then a student’s short term memory will be better, because the brightness of the room will stimulate their brain more than a dark or dim room would.

Materials:

Confined space with at least one door, and one open doorway.
One room divider
One large pillow
Six sharpened pencils
Six number sequence sheets with the tester’s number on top, and bullets labeled sequence 1-9
Nine, eight letter sequences
Timer

Procedures:

Bring five volunteers into the room with no light (do not go into the room yourself).
Recite the 8 number sequences once, loud enough for the tester to hear you.
Stay silent for 30 seconds, then give each tester a piece of paper where they write down however many numbers they remember, in the correct order.
Take sheets of paper, and find the number that they got correct out of the total number sequence. Turn this into a percentage.
Record data, and then graph it with the testers on the x axis, and percentage correct on the y axis.
Repeat steps 1-5 with the lights turned on and the lights on but dimmed, with a different 8 number sequence.

7. Repeat steps 1-6.

Variables:

Controlled:

Position of tester in hallway
Time given to remember numbers recited
Number of numbers in the sequences
Person reciting the number sequences(my mom)
The room that the testers were being tested in.

Independant: Light intensity

Dependant: Number of numbers that the tester got correct and in the correct place in the sequence.

Measurements: Recorded thirty seconds after the sequence of numbers is given. Sequences are given immediately afte one another (back to back).

Safety Requirements:

DO NOT make large movements when in the confined area! It is cramped and someone might get hit.
Unless recording a number sequence, hold your pencils tip down to avoid hurting someone’s face.

Results

Treatment	Number	Tester 1	score	Tester 2	score	Tester 3	score	Tester 4	score	Tester 5	score	Tester 6	score
Light 1	86921673	853…..	0.13	86921673	1.00	869217693	0.88	81629573	0.50	86921673	1.00	86912673		0.75
Light 2	16854935	…….	0.00	16976325	0.38	31895.45	0.25	16453419	0.38	16854935	1.00	268..935		0.63
Light 3	52876135	528….	0.38	7587631	0.50	528764..	0.63	52872658	0.50	52876135	1.00	5…6135		0.63
Dim 1	58139752	581..782	0.63	5318972	0.38	581938752	0.75	35197252	0.38	58139752	1.00	531..792		0.50
Dim 2	54297354	542……	0.38	54297354	1.00	54297..4	0.75	543…74	0.38	54297354	1.00	534..754		0.38
Dim 3	94685324	946…..	0.38	95675834	0.50	94685.24	0.88	84396283	0.13	94685324	1.00	614835..		0.13
Dark 1	64952796	…….	0.00	62952796	0.88	76997256	0.25	64215902	0.25	62952796	0.88	no entry		0.00
Dark 2	64985375	649…..	0.38	64987375	0.88	64987..5	0.75	64384975	0.63	64987345	0.75	6……..		0.13
Dark 3	79185643	9846…..	0.00	79185643	1.00	79185..3	0.75	79184653	0.75	79185643	1.00	79485213		0.63

	Average	Bright Light	0.17		0.63		0.58		0.46		1.00			0.67
	Average	Dim Light	0.46		0.63		0.79		0.29		1.00			0.33
	Average	Dark	0.13		0.92		0.58		0.54		0.88			0.25

Treatment	Average	St. Dev.	Results
Bright Light	0.58	0.27	Light is similar to Dim, but with slightly less variation
Dim Light	0.58	0.28	Dim is similar to Light, but with slightly higher variation
Dark	0.55	0.32	Results: Dark is worst with widest variation

The results from my experiment show that a higher light intensity results in a student's better short term memory.

Even though the average scores of bright and dim light were at a tie of .58, they both beet the average of .55 in the

dark room.

Conclusion: Based on the data, I am able to prove my hypothesis was partially correct. The students did retain more

memory in the higher light intenstiy rooms, but the brightest room did not score higher, on the average, then the dim room.

The two brightest rooms had average scores of 0.58, and the dim room had the average score of 0.55. The tester's brains

were stimulated by the shapes and colors that they could see with even the smallest amount of light in the room, and this

set their brain in the proper mode to pick up on details, such as numbers being recited. When I was in the room being

tested, I remember feeling almost panicky during the dark room test, and this feeling of panick distracted me from the

numbers being recited. My experience also indicates that although our brain must be properly stimulated to work at its height,

there also must be some form of similarity that the brain can pick up on, in order to feel at ease and be able to focus. The way

our brains learn is through subconcious analogies from past experience to the present information. Perhaps the

outlines and colors that the testers were able to see in the lighter rooms was enough to enable them to connect the pattern

of numbers that they were hearing, maybe a memory from a math class, or any place that they had studied numbers.

Another way that higher light intensity rooms helped the testers remember the sequences, is that the light in the

room stimulates the cones instead of rods in the tester's eyes, sending the message to their brain that they were viewing daylight,

and that it was time to be awake. This message could have heightened the tester's senses because of what one might

call "caveman instinct". Before we evolved into the exact species that we are right now, our bodies were trained to stay

alert and awake during the day, because we were visible to preditors. This example is similar to getting a small adrenaline

rush everytime that your brain senses that it is daytime. When our early ancestors were part of the wild, adrenaline

gave them the energy to sprint faster then they normally would be physically able to, as a defense mechanism from preditors.

What stood out to me in the data is how much the scores varied. Even though the average scores were 0.58, 0.58, and 0.55,

the standard deviation varied as much as 0.32. I think that this was partially due to the small number of people that I tested.

The scores were valid, but would have been more accurate, had I gotten even ten more people to be tested.

With a larger number of people, I might have been able to determine the different results between the bright and dim room.

This experiment will help teachers and students find the proper setting to learn the most efficiently in. Bright light in a room

can effect how much memory is retained throughout the class period, and can have a positive effect on the

student's learning in school.