STROOP EFFECT

Aim- To study Stroops Phenomena using Classic Stroop and its variations.

Hypothesis: All factors remaining constant, the time taken for participants to name a set
of incongruent stimulus will be greater than the amount of time taken to name a set of
congruent stimulus.

Attention:- attention is the means by which we actively process a limited amount of

information from the enormous amount of information available through our senses, our
stored memories, and our other cognitive processes.(De weerd,2003a; Rao,2003)

Sensations + Memories + Thought processes

|
Attention
|
Controlled processes+automatic processes
|
Actions

the four main functions of attention:

1. Signal detection and vigilance: We try to detect the appearance of a particular
stimulus. Air traffic controllers, for example, keep an eye on all traffic near andover the
airport.

2. Search: We try to find a signal amidst distracters, for example, when we are looking for
our lost cell phone on an autumn leaf-filled hiking path.

3. Selective attention: We choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others, aswhen
we are involved in a conversation at a party.

4. Divided attention: We prudently allocate our available attentional resources

tocoordinate our performance of more than one task at a time, as when we are cooking and
engaged in a phone conversation at the same time.
(Stenberg,2012,p.137-138)

Determinants of Attention
I. External Factors or Condition:
These conditions are generally those characteristics of outside situation or stimuli which
make the strongest aid for capturing our attention.

1. Nature of the stimulus:

All types of stimuli are not able to bring the same degree of attention.an effective stimulus
should always be chosen for capturing maximum attention.

2. Intensity and size of the stimulus:

In comparison with the weak stimulus, the immense stimulus attracts more attention of an
individual.

3. Contrast, change and variety:

Change and variety strike attention more easily than sameness and absence of change.The
factor, contact or change is highly responsible for capturing attention.

4. Repetition of stimulus:
Repetition is the factor of great importance in securing attention. Because one may ignore a
stimulus at first instance, but if it is repeated for several times it captures our attention.

5. Movement of the stimulus:

The moving stimulus catches our attention more quickly than a stimulus that does not move.
We are more sensitive to objects that move in our field of visionII.

Internal Factors or conditions:

These factors predispose the individual to respond to objective factors, to attend to those
activities that fulfill his desires and motives and suit his interest and attitude. It is the mental
state of the perceiver.

1. Interest:
Interest is said to be the mother of attention. We attend to objects in which we have interest.

2. Motives:
Our basic needs and motives to a great extent, determine our attention, thirst, hunger, sex,
curiosity, fear are some of the important motives.

3.mind set:
Mind set means the tendency or bent of the whole mind. A person always attends to those
objects towards which his mind has set.
(Mangal,2002,p.161-163)

Selective attention

The selective attention definition is the act of focusing on a particular object for some time
while simultaneously ignoring distractions and irrelevant information. Selective attention is
also known as controlled attention, directed attention, or executive attention.
 The ability to selectively focus our attention plays a vital role in our daily lives. It allows us to
concentrate on essential tasks, make decisions, and process information effectively.
Example:- you are at a noisy party and wanting to converse with a friend. Selective attention
lets you focus on your friend’s voice while ignoring other conversations and background
noise.

Kahneman's capacity model of attention

Daniel Kahneman (1973) presented a slightly different model for what attention is. He
viewed attention as a set of cognitive processes for categorizing and recognizing stimuli. The
more complex the stimulus, the harder the processing, and therefore the more resources are
engaged.this model predicts that we pay more attention to things we are interested in,are in
the mood of or have judge important.
Many factors influence this allocation of capacity, which itself depends on the extent and
type of mental resources available. The availability of mental resources, in turn, is affected
by the over- all level of arousal, or state of alertness.

(Reisberg,2012,p.117-118)

Automaticity
Automaticity is the ability to act without really thinking, which happens when a behavior
becomes over-learned. If you practice an action over and over again, you eventually become
so skilled at the task that you can perform it with little or no thought.
examples of automaticity:-
●​ Typing on your computer
●​ Catching a ball
●​ Getting dressed and following your morning routine
●​ Walking
●​ Driving
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Stroop effect
The Stroop Effect refers to the phenomenon where individuals take longer to name the color
of ink that the names of colors are written in than it does to read the color names. The
Stroop Effect is attributed to the stronger synapses that mediate word reading compared to
color naming, resulting in a delay in naming the colors of ink.psychologist John Ridley Stroop
first developed this in 1935.

For example, when presented with the word “green” written in red ink, it is much easier to
name the word that is spelled instead of the color ink in which the word is written.
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The Applications of the Stroop Effect

The Stroop effect has far-reaching applications and implications across various fields, from
cognitive psychology and neuroscience to clinical psychology and beyond. Its ability to
elucidate the mechanisms of attention, cognitive control, and the processing speed of
conflicting information has made it a valuable tool in both research and practical settings.

In Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience: It helps in understanding how the brain

manages conflicting information and the efficiency of cognitive control mechanisms across
different age groups and cognitive states.

Clinical Applications: The Stroop effect has been applied in the clinical domain to assess
and understand various psychiatric and neurological conditions.

Educational Implications: Understanding the Stroop effect can also have implications for
educational strategies, particularly in developing interventions to improve reading skills and
attention in children.

Neurorehabilitation: In the field of neurorehabilitation, the Stroop effect is used as a

therapeutic tool to help individuals recover from brain injuries or strokes.

Decision Making and Behavioral Economics: It highlights how conflicting information can
impact our ability to make decisions under pressure or when faced with complex information,
relevant for fields like behavioral economics and consumer psychology.
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Related researches:-
Kayla Thompson, Ryan Bennett
(Clinical Integration of Neuropsychological Test Results, 89-95)

The Golden Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT) is a widely used neuropsychological measure
used to evaluate inhibitory abilities in the presence of cognitive interference, ultimately
measuring executive functioning. Originating from John Ridley Stroop's foundational work in
1935, the Golden version remains a prevalent and widely utilized adaptation in contemporary
cognitive evaluations. Initially comprising three sections- Color, Word, and Color-Word-the
test prompts individuals to swiftly articulate the color of the ink or verbalize color names in an
incongruent manner. The incongruent condition challenges subjects to suppress automatic
responses, such as reading words, while naming ink colors, providing valuable insights into
the underlying mechanisms of inhibition and cognitive flexibility, known as the Stroop effect.

Participant preliminaries:-
Name:- P.J.
Age:- 18
Gender:- Female
Education:- Graduation

Rapport Formation:-
The subject was called and made to sit comfortably; a conversation was held to make her
feel comfortable. The instructions were given, and all doubts she had were cleared. She was
asked if she was ready to begin and upon her answer the experiment was started.

Instructions:-

Procedure:-
The subject was made to sit in a quiet and comfortable place. Rapport had been established
with the subject by convincing her that her responses will be kept confidential. Then, the
instructions were given to the subject. As such there is no time limit to complete the
experiment but you have to respond to whatever response comes to your mind at the first
place.

•conduction
Introspective Report:-
“Even after getting the instructions, I was little nervous about my performance, but I think I
did really well.it was a fun experience for me.it was challenging particularly in incongruent
situation.”
Observational Report:-
The subject was nervous and anxious at first but after doing one trial she was eased into the
experiment. She was little confused in the beginning but later completely understood the
process. The subject did well.

Precautions observed:-
●​ Extraneous variables are to be controlled during the test.
●​ It was made sure that there was no background noise to avoid
unwanted distractions.
●​ The subject was made to sit quietly and comfortably.
●​ It was confirmed whether the subject had understood the instructions correctly or not.
●​ It should be taken care that the subject only views one page at a time.
●​ Tester should keep a close attention when the subject is reading aloud.

Data table:-

Graphical representations of data:-

Result analysis:-
The result of the present experiment shows that in the congruent condition the subject took
17.5seconds on average to complete the task and committed 0 errors. But in the
incongruent condition the same subject took 33 seconds on average to complete the task
and committed 2 errors. In congruent situations participant was able to respond within 10 to
25 seconds, whereas responding to the incongruent situation it took 12 to 44 seconds.
Participant was able to answer with accuracy when responding to the congruent list while
responding to the incongruent list participant answer with less accuracy.
From the above results we can see that the subject took more time to finish the incongruent
condition as compared to the congruent condition and hence our hypothesis has been
proved. We can also see that the subject committed more errors in the incongruent lists than
in the congruent list.

Discussion:-
The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the Stroop effect and to investigate how
interference affects participants ability in both the conditions.The results obtained from the
experiment supported the hypothesis. The main hypothesis was that “All factors remaining
constant, the time taken for participants to name a set of incongruent stimulus will be greater
than the amount of time taken to name a set of congruent stimulus.”
This hypothesis has been approved.A significant difference was seen between the two
reaction times and the two conditions. The present experiment supports the idea proposed
by Stroop (1935).
Overall, the results of the experiment met the expectations presented in the hypotheses,
regarding both the response time and the accuracy of responses. It can be concluded that
when the condition of the word list is congruent, participants presented both a faster
response time and more accurate answers compared to when the condition of the word list
is incongruent. These findings reinforce Stroop's belief that the brain's response time is
hindered when it is forced to deal with conflicting stimuli.The cause of these errors in the
incongruent condition can be explained due to cognitive interference.

Researches that supports the hypothesis:-

An experiment by Dr. Amrita Banerjee (2023) examined the Stroop Effect hypothesis
suggesting that it would take individuals a longer time to identify colours when they didn't
match the words displayed. To investigate this hypothesis, a group of 60 undergraduate
students participated in the Stroop test, where they were tasked with identifying the ink
colour in which either a matching-colour block or a word with a mismatched colour was
presented. The collected data were then analysed using a repeated measures test, revealing
a statistically significant difference between the scores associated with matching and
mismatching colours. On average, participants were able to complete the matching colour
task approximately 6.23 seconds faster than the mismatched colour task. These findings are
discussed within the context of cognitive interference.

References:-

Mangal,S.K. (2002). Advanced educational psychology.

Reisberg,D. (2012). Cognition: exploring the science of the mind.

Stenberg,R. stenberg,K. & Mio,J. (2012). Cognitive psychology. Cengage learning.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-automaticity

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/stroop-effect

https://imotions.com/blog/learning/research-fundamentals/the-stroop-effect/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amrita-Banerjee-19/publication/

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1201/9781003309604-13/stroop-color-word-te
st-kayla-thompson-ryan-bennett