Experimental Psychology: The Stroop Effect

The Stroop effect is demonstrated by the reaction time to determine a color when the color is printed in a different color’s name. Participants respond slower or make more errors when the meaning of the word is incongruent with the color of the word. Despite knowing the meaning of the word, participants showed incapability of ignoring the stimulus attribute. This reflects a clear instance of semantic interference and an unfathomed failure of selective attention (Stroop, 1935).

An interesting challenge arises when a task such as color naming is identified as both controlled and automatic, by varying the other task involved. Color naming is identified as a controlled process when the other task is word reading, but as an automatic process when the other task is shape naming. Cohen, Dunbar and McClelland (1990) proposed an alternative explanation of the Stroop effect, which does not distinguish between automatic and controlled processing. Instead, they proposed that automaticity is a range, and that Stroop interference depends on the relative degree of learning the particular tasks, not on processing speed.

The Stroop effect was tested on four different tasks. Nineteen Queens College students were recruited by flyer, and each were assigned to a word reading task, color reading task, color inhibition task, and word inhibition task. They were timed using a stopwatch function on a cell phone, to name the color, or word to the quickest of their ability. In the order from longest reaction time to shortest: inhibition color naming task, color naming task, inhibition word reading, and word reading. This study shows that people can read words more quickly than they can name colors, and that inhibiting an automatic response to color/word tasks will take longer to do than tasks that do not involve inhibition.

Alansari and Baroun (2004) had participants state whether they were color blind, dyslexic, or if they had previously ever taken the Stroop test before, it was important that these interferences were factored out in order to obtain a conclusive observation in regards to all the participants involved in the experiment. MacLeod (1991) had suggested that those with disabilities tended to show high Stroop interference, also along with those with an attention deficit disorder since maintaining concentration throughout the experiment and test is an important factor in obtaining more accurate results without a significant outlier. Also different levels of interference where shown in children and adults, it was also observed that interference began at an early age, declined in the adult years since most have a peak of cognitive development and understanding in adult years, but once again increased interference around the age of 60 (MacLeod,

Controlled Vs Automatic processes: A modified version of a Stroop experiment using colour-associated and colour neutral words.

My experiment was performed as a replication of a previous experiment by Stroop (1935). J. R. Stroop (1935) conducted this experiment as a means to study interference by using task-irrelevant stimuli. Task-irrelevant stimuli are stimuli that are unrelated to the current task (Goldstein, 2011). Interference is the competition of responses (Goldstein, 2011). The effect that was found was later named the Stroop Effect (Goldstein, 2011).

In Stroop’s (1935) interference article, it was discovered that there is more interference in color naming then color reading. The experiment described in the article tested whether there was more interference from words or from colors (Stroop 1935). Two tests were administered each with a separate control. The RCNd test determined how fast one could read color names where the color was different from the color name while the NCWd test determined how fast one could name colors where the color was different from the word on the page. The mean time for 100 responses increased from 63.3 seconds on the RCNd test to 110.3 seconds on the NCWd test or an

In the Stroop (1935) experiment he has proved that the effect is going to be one of the two slower or faster. In the non-conflict, some of the participants had to read two sets of words: set one with word written in their contradicting word so this has made it to be conflicting. Stroop (1935) came out to find that there are different association of words and the colors. Stroop (1935) wanted to see if they had any differences in the reaction time when the association was conducted. He noticed that the participants took longer read the conflicting word rather than the actual name word. The non-conflict was much easier and faster to do.

The research assessed in this article discusses the Stroop effect. The Stroop effect occurs when our selective attention fails and we are unable to attend to some information and ignore the rest. This study tests the Stroop effect by presenting the participant with a congruent or incongruent word and the participant is asked to type the color of the word or the actual word in a series of trials. In this research, it has been found that participants had faster reaction times for congruent items and slower reaction times for incongruent items. In addition, participants had faster reaction times when

In the Stroop task, participants are asked to name the colour of the ink that a colour word is written in, while ignoring the written the word (Goldfarb et al., 2011; Raz et al., 2006). The task is comprised of congruent words, where the ink colour and the written word match and incongruent words, where the ink colour and the written word do not match. The Stroop task has illustrated that participants respond slower and less accurately when the word is incongruent compared to when it is congruent (Goldfarb et al., 2011; Raz et al., 2006). The difference in the accuracy and speed of responses between the congruent and incongruent words is called the Stroop Effect (Goldfarb et al., 2011; Raz et al., 2006). Research has suggested that this occurs

But still the main focus of the study is on whether occurs and how strong the stroop effect is. The one-tail hypothesis of the study was that the effect will cause a significant delay (or disruption) in guessing the correct colour for the words. Null hypothesis was that there will be not a significant difference between colour-neutral and colour-relevant words.

In the Stroop task 8 college student participants from a cognitive lab course. Two participants were males and the remaining 6 participants were female. Using a computerized program Cedrus SuperLab 4.5 the participants were tested in the Stroop Task. The participants were asked to identify four colors, blue, green, red or yellow. In addition, participants were also asked to identify the names of the colors they saw by pressing a corresponding computer key with their middle and index fingers, D for red, F for blue, J for green, and K for yellow. Our experiment was conducted in two phases a practice phase and a testing phase.

The stroop effect is a strange phenomenon when your right and left side of your brain have a conflict about what the word says and what color the word is. I am going to make a project to examine everyone’s attempt and graph it. I am going to see if the difficulty is harder or easier compared to the age and gender of the challengers.

In 1935, the Stroop Effect was first established by John Ridley Stroop. Research done by John Ridley Stroop emphasizes the processing of words that it has on the more studious challenge of naming just the ink color. The Stroop Effect is a proof of interference in the reaction time of an exercise. In the Stroop Effect, subjects are tested only on naming colors of incompatible words and of control patches (MacLeod 1991). Many tests can be distributed, all varied in the colors and words. Any color can be used; the same goes with any word being used. Subjects receive a time of how long it took them to read each test; where the subjects find a time difference between the different tests. When taking some of these tests, people may experience a mental sensation comparable to running in a swimming pool (Bower 1992).

We are replicating J.R. Stroop’s original experiment The Stroop Effect (Stroop, 1935). The aim of the study was to understand how automatic processing interferes with attempts to attend to sensory information. The independent variable of our experiment was the three conditions, the congruent words, the incongruent words, and the colored squares, and the dependent variable was the time that it took participants to state the ink color of the list of words in each condition. We used repeated measures for the experiment in order to avoid influence of extraneous variables. The participants were 16-17 years of age from Garland High School. The participants will be timed on how long it takes them to say the color of the squares and the color of the words. The research was conducted in the Math Studies class. The participants were aged 16-17 and were students at Garland High School. The results showed that participants took the most time with the incongruent words.