The Stroop Task Test
1 Gareth Stack - Lab Group 2 Date of practical - 20/10/03 / Date of Submission - 07/11/03
Reaction times related to congruence in a Stroop test of undergraduate students
2 ABSTRACT
The 'Stroop effect', a measure of interference in a reaction time task, was investigated. Twenty undergraduate students of mixed age and gender were each presented with 48 coloured words in turn. These were divided into 16 of each of 3 levels of congruence. The time required to identify the colour of each stimulus was recorded, and related to whether the word presented identified, contrasted with or contained an unrelated meaning to the font colour it was displayed in. This data was collected and compared in order to assess the median time taken to correctly respond to each level of congruence. The results confirmed the effect of interference on the identification of colour when presented with contrasting semantic cues. However additional inferential statistics are required to assess the significance of the variance found between response times to words with meanings unrelated to, and those with meanings equivalent to their font colour. It is suggested that additional experiments be carried out to control for the possible effects of the relative position of input keys, and to determine whether prior learning or a language bias in the perception of semantic information explains the results.
3 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No. 1. Title Page
2.
Abstract
3.
Table of Contents
4.
Introduction
6.
Method
7.
Results
9.
Discussion
11.
References
12.
Appendix 1 – Table of Group and Experimenters Response times in Milliseconds
13.
Appendix 2 – Additional Graphs
4 INTRODUCTION Since its development in 1935, the Stroop task, a measure of the effect of interference on performance of a colour identification task, has been used to investigate aspects of such varied psychological disorders as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Reaction times related to congruence in a Stroop test of undergraduate students
2 ABSTRACT
The 'Stroop effect', a measure of interference in a reaction time task, was investigated. Twenty undergraduate students of mixed age and gender were each presented with 48 coloured words in turn. These were divided into 16 of each of 3 levels of congruence. The time required to identify the colour of each stimulus was recorded, and related to whether the word presented identified, contrasted with or contained an unrelated meaning to the font colour it was displayed in. This data was collected and compared in order to assess the median time taken to correctly respond to each level of congruence. The results confirmed the effect of interference on the identification of colour when presented with contrasting semantic cues. However additional inferential statistics are required to assess the significance of the variance found between response times to words with meanings unrelated to, and those with meanings equivalent to their font colour. It is suggested that additional experiments be carried out to control for the possible effects of the relative position of input keys, and to determine whether prior learning or a language bias in the perception of semantic information explains the results.
3 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No. 1. Title Page
2.
Abstract
3.
Table of Contents
4.
Introduction
6.
Method
7.
Results
9.
Discussion
11.
References
12.
Appendix 1 – Table of Group and Experimenters Response times in Milliseconds
13.
Appendix 2 – Additional Graphs
4 INTRODUCTION Since its development in 1935, the Stroop task, a measure of the effect of interference on performance of a colour identification task, has been used to investigate aspects of such varied psychological disorders as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
References: 11 REFERENCES Girelli, L., Sandrini, M., Cappa, S., (2000) Number-Stroop performance in normal aging and Alzheimer 's-type dementia Gruber, S.A. (2002). Stroop performance in schizophrenic and bipolar patients: An fMRI study. Dissertation Abstracts International, 63, 1071-. Mendlewicz, L., Nef, F., Simon, Y., (2001) Selective handling of information in patients suffering from restrictive anorexia in an emotional Stroop test and a work recognition test. Neuropsychobiology, 44, 59-64. Miller, G., (1956) The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information The Psychological Review, 1956, 63, 81-97 Savitz, P., Jansen, J.B Shor, R.E. (1993). An auditory analog of the stroop test. Journal of General Psychology, 93, 281-289. Stroop, J.R., (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643-662. Watts, Fraser N., McKenna, F.P., Sharrock, R., Trezise, L., (1986) Colour naming of phobia-related words. British Journal of Psychology, 77, 97-109.