The Effect of Font Type on Information Retention (Memory)

Authors

Julie Boeke, University of Northern IowaFollow
Mary Haffarnan, University of Northern IowaFollow
Mike Gasser, University of Northern IowaFollow

Document Type

Research Paper

Abstract

To examine whether information retention and characteristics of font are related 149 university students, divided into four groups, read an information sheet about tuberculoses, then answered six questions relating to the information. The information and question sheet for each group used a different font type;Group 1- Courier (serif/mono),Group 2 - Helvetica (sanserif/proportional),Group 3 - Palatino (serif/proportional,)Group 4 - Monaco (sanserif/mono). The mean scores on the six questions for Groups 1 and 3 (serif) were higher than the mean scores of Groups 2 and 4 (sanserif) showing that more details of the information are retained when the information is written in serif font. This difference was found to be significant to the > .05 alpha level.

Publication Date

1999

Journal Title

Conference Proceedings: Undergraduate Social Science Research Conference

Volume

3

Issue

1

First Page

17

Last Page

19

Copyright

©1999 by the University of Northern Iowa

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Publisher

University of Northern Iowa

City

Cedar Falls, IA

Recommended Citation

Boeke, Julie; Haffarnan, Mary; and Gasser, Mike (1999) "The Effect of Font Type on Information Retention (Memory)," Conference Proceedings: Undergraduate Social Science Research Conference: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/csbsproceedings/vol3/iss1/6