The combined effectiveness of classical music and color on short-term memory

This study aimed to investigate the combined effects of classical music and color on short-term memory performance. A sample of 20 university students as participants was randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Levene's Test was employed to assess the equality of variances between the groups, yielding a non-significant p-value (0.072 > 0.05), suggesting equal variances. Subsequently, a t-test assuming equal variances showed a non-significant result (p = 0.127 > 0.05). This implies no significant difference in short-term memory performance between the experimental and control groups. The findings contrast with prior research demonstrating the potential of classical music and color to enhance memory. While music's influence on cognition is established, this study suggests that their combined effects might not significantly enhance short-term memory. However, further research is recommended to explore various factors influencing this interaction and its potential applications in education and cognitive therapy. The research findings can serve as a foundation for students to comprehend that not all methods or stimuli will significantly enhance memory performance. Hence, students can become more discerning in selecting learning strategies that align with their preferences and cognitive traits

Effects of Visual Distinctiveness on Learning and Retrieval in Icon Toolbars

Learnability is important in graphical interfaces because it supports the user’s transition to expertise. One aspect of GUI learnability is the degree to which the icons in toolbars and ribbons are identifiable and memorable–but current "flat" and "subtle" designs that promote strong visual consistency could hinder learning by reducing visual distinctiveness within a set of icons. There is little known, however, about the effects of visual distinctiveness of icons on selection performance and memorability. To address this gap, we carried out two studies using several icon sets with different degrees of visual distinctiveness, and compared how quickly people could learn and retrieve the icons. Our first study found no evidence that increasing colour or shape distinctiveness improved learning, but found that icons with concrete imagery were easier to learn. Our second study found similar results: there was no effect of increasing either colour or shape distinctiveness, but there was again a clear improvement for icons with recognizable imagery. Our results show that visual characteristics appear to affect UI learnability much less than the meaning of the icons' representations