A Replication of the Stroop Effect
A Replication of the Stroop Effect
Kimber-Ann Cook
Broughton High School
3/26/08
Ms. Greene
IB Psychology SL
1, 738
Abstract
The Stroop (1935) effect is the inability to ignore a color word when the task is to report the ink color of that word (i.e., to say "green" to the word RED in green ink). The present study investigated whether object-based processing contributes to the Stroop effect. According to this view, observers are unable to ignore irrelevant features of an attended object (Kahneman & Henik, 1981). In three experiments, participants had to name the color of one of two superimposed rectangles and to ignore words that appeared in the relevant object, in the irrelevant object, or in the background. The words were congruent, neutral, or incongruent with respect to the correct color response. Words in the irrelevant object and in the background produced significant Stroop effects, consistent with earlier findings. Importantly, however, words in the relevant object produced larger Stroop effects than did the other conditions, suggesting amplified processing of all the features of an attended object. Thus, object-based processing can modulate the Stroop effect.
Early “bottleneck” theories of selective attention allowed for only one channel of input to be semantically analyzed, other information being discarded. Later modifications to the attention theory proposed that all inputs were analyzed but that much of this is unconscious and automatic. However, automatic processes are difficult to unlearn and control. This paper reports a study of the Stroop effect that these over learned, automatic processing could intrude on a color identification tasks.
Introduction The psychological occurrence we now call “the Stroop effect” was first described in 1935 by John Ridley Stroop. The Stroop effect was used in cognitive psychology to understand how behaviors interact. Stroop’s work was originated in the work done by J. M. Cattell (1885), who theorized
Kimber-Ann Cook
Broughton High School
3/26/08
Ms. Greene
IB Psychology SL
1, 738
Abstract
The Stroop (1935) effect is the inability to ignore a color word when the task is to report the ink color of that word (i.e., to say "green" to the word RED in green ink). The present study investigated whether object-based processing contributes to the Stroop effect. According to this view, observers are unable to ignore irrelevant features of an attended object (Kahneman & Henik, 1981). In three experiments, participants had to name the color of one of two superimposed rectangles and to ignore words that appeared in the relevant object, in the irrelevant object, or in the background. The words were congruent, neutral, or incongruent with respect to the correct color response. Words in the irrelevant object and in the background produced significant Stroop effects, consistent with earlier findings. Importantly, however, words in the relevant object produced larger Stroop effects than did the other conditions, suggesting amplified processing of all the features of an attended object. Thus, object-based processing can modulate the Stroop effect.
Early “bottleneck” theories of selective attention allowed for only one channel of input to be semantically analyzed, other information being discarded. Later modifications to the attention theory proposed that all inputs were analyzed but that much of this is unconscious and automatic. However, automatic processes are difficult to unlearn and control. This paper reports a study of the Stroop effect that these over learned, automatic processing could intrude on a color identification tasks.
Introduction The psychological occurrence we now call “the Stroop effect” was first described in 1935 by John Ridley Stroop. The Stroop effect was used in cognitive psychology to understand how behaviors interact. Stroop’s work was originated in the work done by J. M. Cattell (1885), who theorized
References: Background on the Stroop Effect. Retrieved March 17, 2008, from http://www.rit.edu/~gssp400/sbackground.html Milton, N. (1994, May). Early and Late Selection Theories of Attention. Retrieved March 25, 2008, from http://www.epistemics.co.uk/staff/nmilton/papers/attention.htm Young, R. D. (2007, December 14). Stroop Task: A Test of Capacity to Direct Attention. Retrieved March 15, 2008, from Retrieved March 17, 2008, from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Stroop/ Tzelgoz, J