Stroop Lab Report
Lateralized Stroop Effects
Andrew Hanna
Psychology Program
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Introduction
Through broad literature review the stroop effect can be explained through demonstration of a reaction time of a task. We built upon the basic ideas developed in the previous Stroop models of MacLeod in 1991, Belanger & Cimino in 2002, and J.R. Stroop, the first person to publish its significance in English in 1935(Stroop, 1935). In the Stroop model, color-words are variously presented in contrasting ink colors, also known as incongruent-colored words; for example, the word "red" when presented in blue ink. The word ‘Blue’ when presented in blue ink, on the other hand is an example of a congruent-colored word. Because the left hemisphere has demonstrated an overall advantage relative to the right hemisphere on most verbal tasks, interference effects were hypothesized to be greater in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere (Belanger & Cimino, 2002). Numerous studies have been made in hope to fully understand the Stroop effect, yet several issues remain open. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether the Stroop phenomenon is equally strong in both brain hemispheres. Participants collected from our research methods lab were asked to complete an online experiment measuring the time of interference it took them to depict the color of the ink of the color-words. Furthermore, each color was assigned a number. For example, the ink color red was represented by the number two. The color words were also randomly presented in the center, left, and right of the screen to measure our hypothesis, which stated that incongruent words presented to the left hemisphere exhibit greater Stroop effect than when they are presented to the right hemisphere. Along with our second hypothesis stating that there is greater interference (Stroop effect) when color words are incongruent with their presentation color. The Stroop effect can be denoted
Andrew Hanna
Psychology Program
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Introduction
Through broad literature review the stroop effect can be explained through demonstration of a reaction time of a task. We built upon the basic ideas developed in the previous Stroop models of MacLeod in 1991, Belanger & Cimino in 2002, and J.R. Stroop, the first person to publish its significance in English in 1935(Stroop, 1935). In the Stroop model, color-words are variously presented in contrasting ink colors, also known as incongruent-colored words; for example, the word "red" when presented in blue ink. The word ‘Blue’ when presented in blue ink, on the other hand is an example of a congruent-colored word. Because the left hemisphere has demonstrated an overall advantage relative to the right hemisphere on most verbal tasks, interference effects were hypothesized to be greater in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere (Belanger & Cimino, 2002). Numerous studies have been made in hope to fully understand the Stroop effect, yet several issues remain open. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether the Stroop phenomenon is equally strong in both brain hemispheres. Participants collected from our research methods lab were asked to complete an online experiment measuring the time of interference it took them to depict the color of the ink of the color-words. Furthermore, each color was assigned a number. For example, the ink color red was represented by the number two. The color words were also randomly presented in the center, left, and right of the screen to measure our hypothesis, which stated that incongruent words presented to the left hemisphere exhibit greater Stroop effect than when they are presented to the right hemisphere. Along with our second hypothesis stating that there is greater interference (Stroop effect) when color words are incongruent with their presentation color. The Stroop effect can be denoted