The Effect of Background Colors of Learning Materials on Memory:evidence from Chinese Characters

In teaching practice, color is a common and significant stimulus that can influence learners' cognitive load and learning outcomes through the mediating effects of attention and emotion. Given the challenges faced by CSL learners in mastering and memorizing Chinese characters, this study explores the impact of the background color of learning materials—one aspect of the physical learning environment—on the memory retention of Chinese characters among CSL learners. The study employs four background colors (white, red, blue, and green) and adopts a combination of E-Prime psychological experimentation, questionnaire surveys, and semi-structured interviews to examine the recall performance of 30 participants with similar working memory capacity and no particular color preference. The participants' ability to recall Chinese characters was assessed through written recall tasks under the four different background colors. The collected data were then analyzed using SPSS 26.0, with the p -values adjusted using the Greenhouse-Geisser method and multiple comparisons corrected using the Bonferroni method. The results indicate that the background color of the learning materials has a significant effect on the memorization of Chinese characters. Specifically, the red background was found to facilitate the completion of focused memory tasks and demonstrated a robust memory enhancement effect. In contrast, the blue background may be more suitable for creative tasks, as it exhibited a certain degree of memory suppression effect in focused memory tests. Moreover, the effects of white and green backgrounds on character recall were similar, falling between the effects observed for red and blue backgrounds. These findings partially validate the revised cognitive load model proposed by Choi et al. (2014) and highlight that color, as an independent factor, plays a crucial role in influencing learning outcomes. This study thus contributes to the theoretical understanding of background color and its implications for enhancing the efficacy of learning materials.