The Stroop effect can be described as the delay in the time between controlled and automatic information processing. The Stroop test requires that participants view all the words printed with similar colors and a different color other than its meaning. The study aimed to conduct the Stroop test to determine whether there is a difference in the reaction time for congruent, non-congruent, and neutral images. The experiment measured whether visual attention shifting led to a difference in automatic and non-automatic responses. Visual attention shifting occurs when there is a change in what one can see, requiring the movement of the eye from one location to another. The experiment captured the shift in visual attention by designing it such that participants had to change their focus when viewing the color and selecting the image. The study hypothesized that the reaction times for the congruent images would be faster, followed by the neutral images, and the non-congruent images will have the slowest reaction time. The rationale for the hypothesis is that it is expected that the brain will have an automatic response for congruent images, making it have a faster response time.
The Stroop experiment was first conducted by John Ridley Stroop, a psychologist that investigated cognition and interference. He first conducted the study by writing down the names of colors using black ink. He also used different colors to write the words and indicated some of the words using squares. The participants were given a task to read the color printed on black ink regardless of the colors on the first part of the experiment. The second part of the experiment involved the participants responding to the ink color instead of the words and identifying the squares' names. The experiment's findings revealed that it took longer to read the color printed in experiment two with incongruent words than in the first experiment with congruent words. The effect was identified as a delay that occurred when congruent and incongruent words.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The theories that have been used to explain the Stroop effect include the selective attention theory, the automaticity theory, and the speed of processing theory. The selective attention theory observes that information that requires selective attention will undertake further awareness and processing that will be ignored. The colors of words will require more attention than the simple reading, and the brain processes written information faster than the colors themselves (Pires et al., 2018). The automaticity theory observes that reading is a more automated process compared to recognizing colors. Congruent words with similar colors will have faster reaction times due to an automated response. The speed of processing is a theory that observes that the processing of written words is usually faster than that of colors. The difficulty in identifying color after reading the word results in a longer processing time.
Method
Participants
The total number of participants that took place in the study was n = 11. The participants were students enrolled in an experimental psychology program. The number of male participants was 5, while the number of female participants was 6. All the participants went through similar test conditions of undertaking the Stroop tests. Three testing sessions included the congruent, neutral, and non-congruent tests, and each of the given tests had twenty trials. The participants experimented voluntarily, and no compensation was made.
Design
The study was a within-subjects design as all the participants tested all the given conditions. The independent variables in the experiment were the Stroop test conditions, while the dependent variables were the reaction times. The different conditions were congruent, neutral, and incongruent words. The reaction time was taken by considering the time taken to view the color and click on its color.
Procedure
Participants for the study were recruited from the experimental psychology program. They accessed the study through the use of a website link that could access the Stroop test. The data from each of the participants (“Stroop Experiment”, n.d.). The results generated by each of the participants were tabulated and taken for further analysis.
Results
The mean reaction times were different for all the three conditions. The results were supported using an ANOVA with repeated measures. The results from the test revealed that the mean reaction times were statistically significantly different (F (2, 20) = 618,733 p < 0.001). The analysis of the mean reaction times showed a smaller reaction time for the congruent tests (M = 1293.33432ms), followed by the neutral tests (1387.19836ms) and the incongruent conditions (1742.92952ms). The post hoc test showed that the mean difference between congruent and neutral was -93.9ms, the congruent and incongruent – 449.6ms, and neutral and incongruent -355.7ms. The mean difference was statistically significant for incongruent and congruent conditions (p<0.001) and the incongruent and neutral conditions (p>0.001) but not statistically significant for the congruent and neutral conditions (p=0.838). The results showed a difference between the congruent, neutral, and incongruent conditions but the difference between the congruent and neutral conditions was not significantly high.
Discussion
The results were similar to the findings on the effect of Stroop interference. It was expected that the reaction times for the thee conditions would be different. The hypothesis was confirmed by observing the different reaction times. According to Pan et al. (2019), the Stroop effect can be explained through working memory maintenance. A recently identified color is usually stored in the working memory. When the color has been remembered for longer, it is actively maintained and remembered in the working memory. The study also revealed that the specific color-identification task could interfere with the working memory. The congruent trials resulted in better working memory compared to the incongruent trials.
The implications of the research show that there is a difference in the automatic and non-automatic response times of different individuals. The results would have a significant impact on psychology as they would show the approach to processing information. It shows that different factors could impact instinctual fast thinking (Kinsey et al., 2019). The study also has an implication on the learning skills, ability to multitask, and habit formation. Congruent words could be regarded as habitual actions that follow an automatic and fast thinking reaction. However, the neutral and incongruent words are non-habitual actions that can be developed through repetitive actions. Stroop’s interference, where there is a reduction in the reaction times after experimenting several times, can further be used to explain the formation of habits.
One of the major limitations of the study was the limited sample size of 11 participants. The small sample size could have impacted the difference between the congruent and neutral values. There could also be a Stroop’s interference that negatively impacted the results of the study. Future research could increase the sample size and analyze whether the difference between the congruent and neutral values would be statistically significant. The future study could also analyze the presence of Stroop’s interference, its implications, and how it can impact the Stroop experiment results.
Conclusion
The study involved conducting a Stroop experiment to determine whether there was a difference in the three conditions of neutral, incongruent, and congruent trials. The results showed a difference in the findings where the congruent trial had a faster reaction than the neutral trial, and the neutral trail had a faster reaction time than the incongruent trial. The implication of the study is that it shows that there is a difference in automatic and non-automatic response times. The difference can be applied to explain the formation of habits. The Stroop test can also be expanded and applied to measure the processing speed, capacity and skills, and processing abilities of different individuals. Future research can focus on conducting the experiment on a larger sample size and studying Stroop’s interference.
References
Kinsey, M. J., Gwynne, S. M. V., Kuligowski, E. D., & Kinateder, M. (2019). Cognitive biases within decision-making during fire evacuations. Fire Technology , 55 (2), 465-485.
Pan, Y., Han, Y., & Zuo, W. (2019). The color-word Stroop effect driven by working memory maintenance. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics , 81 (8), 2722-2731.
Pires, L., Leitão, J., Guerrini, C., & Simões, M. R. (2018). Cognitive control during a spatial Stroop task: Comparing conflict monitoring and prediction of response-outcome theories. Acta Psychologica , 189 , 63-75.
Stroop Experiment. (n.d.). https://psych.hanover.edu/JavaTest/CLE/Cognition_js/exp/stroop.html
Figure 1. Difference in the mean reaction times. The incongruent mean reaction time was higher than that of congruent and neutral times.
