Assessment of computerized Color Stroop task through PEBL

Introduction

The Stroop effect is where the reaction time of the subject slows down when processing
conflicting/different information – A delay can be observed in the reaction time between to
congruent and incongruent stimulus. (The Stroop Effect., n.d.)
Congruent stimulus is the stimulus where there is no confliction information while
Incongruent Stimulus is the stimulus where there is conflicting Information.

The Stroop Effect first discovered by the American psychologist Dr John Ridley Stroop in
1935. The effect was named after him.
In Dr John Ridley Stroop’s original experiment, he used three objects – The names of the
colors written in black ink, the names of the colors written in different ink than the colors
named and squares of each given color.
To conduct the experiment, Stroop made the Subjects read the name of the color written in
black ink. Afterwards, he made them read the words printed, regardless of the color they were
printed in. He conducted another experiment afterwards, where he made the subjects to name
the color regardless of the written word and then name the colors of the squares. (Stroop,
1935)

Dr John Ridley Stroop observed that the subjects took significantly more time to name the
colors regardless of the word, than just reading the word. (Ibid)

Few theories which have the explanatory value to the above phenomena are:

Speed of Processing Speed – The theory suggests that there might be a time delay in which the brain
takes longer time to process colors and relatively less time to process words. (What Is the Stroop
Effect?, n.d.)

Selective attention – The theory suggests that the colors take more attention to be recognised by the
brain while words relatively take less attention. (Ibid)

Automaticity – According to the theory – reading words is an automated process while recognising
colors needs controlled attention. Reading the word is a very automated process while compared to
recognising colors. ((Monahan, 2001)
Parallel distributed processing – The theory suggests that as the brain processes information; there
are different pathways to prosses different types of information. The pathways which process words
are faster than the ones which recognises colors. (Cohen et al., 1990)

The Stroop effect is used to measure many different things regarding how the brain processes – the
attention span of the subject, the ability to multitask of the subject, the areas of the brain which
functions w.r.t attention and focus, color recognition of the subject etc (The Stroop Effect., n.d.)

Method

Aim

To test whether irrelevant stimuli interfere with the colour naming task.

Plan

Administer the computerized Color Stroop task through PEBL to the participant.

Purpose is to assess whether processing of one stimulus feature is interfering with processing

of other features of the same stimulus. If there are no errors made in responding under

different stimulus feature variant conditions, then it indicates the participant’s ability to

inhibit cognitive interference while processing a particular stimulus feature.

Hypotheses

H₀1.There is no difference in the accuracy (or errors) made between three conditions

of the colour naming task

H₀2.There is no difference in the mean response time between three conditions of the

colour naming task

Materials
Color Stroop Task on PEBL. The Stroop effect is named after John Ridley Stroop

(Stroop. J R, 1935). This is one of the frequently used tests to measure selective attention

capacity of the subject. The Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL) version of

the test is used in the current experiment (Mueller & Piper, 2014). The task consists of
three conditions where subjects are expected to identify the colour of the words presented on
the screen.

Condition 1 Consistent (C). In this condition the meaning of the words and colour of the

words are the same.

Condition 2 Inconsistent (I). In this condition the meaning of the words and colour of the

words are different.

Condition 3 Neutral (N). In this condition, the meaning of the words is not related to any

colours.

Procedure

Setting up & Arrangement

The participant is seated comfortably. Rapport has to be established. After the basic

orientation to the test, the participant will be asked to start the test.

Intake process

The participant has been chosen based on convenience sampling.

Participant details

Name (initials): T

Age: 20

Sex: Male

Education: Undergraduate

Process
Numbers 1 to 4 will be assigned to colours such as Red, Blue, Yellow and green. The

participant will be instructed to identify the colour of the word, presented on the screen for a

few milliseconds, by pressing the assigned number on the keypad. A few practice trials have

to be given to reduce the interference of response delay. After the practice trial, the
participant will be asked to continue the experiment. The three conditions have a total of 56
trials in each, including 8 practice trials under each condition. Hence, there are a total of 24
practice trials, and 48 actual trials in each condition.

Instructions

The following instructions are to be given to the participant.

“You are about to take part in a task in which you will be asked to determine the

colour that written words appear in. Sometimes, the words will be actual colour names.

When this happens, try not to respond with the written colour name, but only with the colour

of the word with the 1-2-3-4 keys on the top of the keyboard. Colours assigned to each

number are: 1 = red 2 = blue 3 = green 4 = yellow. Kindly respond as fast as possible.”

Debriefing

Thank you for your participation in this experiment. Your data will be kept

confidential and will only be used for academic purposes. The purpose of this experiment

was to see if irrelevant stimuli interfere and create conflict with color-naming abilities, when

put under certain conditions. Majority of people show the existence of the conflict. If you

have any further queries regarding the experiment, you can ask.

Controls/Precautions & Ethical Considerations

● Extraneous variables, like environmental distractions, participant anxiety etc. are

controlled during the test to the best of the ability of the experimenter.
● The participant is given some practice sessions to learn the number associated with

colour.

● Participant is debriefed after the experiment.

Analysis

The data is captured on PEBL in terms of average response time and accuracy (number of

errors made). Three columns are to be considered from the PEBL excel data sheet for

calculation - rt, random-error and incongruence error. The ‘cond’ column indicates the

respective three conditions, which are presented in random order. The effect of the irrelevant

stimuli on color naming is calculated based on average response time and accuracy. Mean

response time has to be calculated separately for each condition under actual trials, and

accuracy of response is expressed through the total number of errors made as random and

incongruence error. Mean accuracy is calculated by computing the statistical mean of all the

errors across all actual trials, separately for each condition.

Results and Discussion

Table 1

Summary table of Mean response time and mean accuracy across Consistent, Inconsistent

and Neutral Stimulus conditions

Name Condition Mean Response time Mean accuracy

Consistent 670.125 1

T Inconsistent 842.083 0.937

Neutral 699.458 0.909167

the subject with the mean response time and accuracy.

Subject has T shown a total of errors with 2 from Random errors dimension and 2 from
Incongruent error dimension. The mean response time has been recorded with 670.125 being
the fastest time and 842.083 being the slowest. The mean accuracy for Congruent is
calculated as 1 while the mean accuracy for Incongruent is 0.937 and neutral is 0.909167

Conclusion
The first hypothesis states that there is no difference in the errors made between three
conditions of the color naming task which is correct with respect to the results obtained.
The second hypothesis states that there is no difference in the time taken between three
conditions of the color naming task which is wrong with respect to the results obtained

References

Stroop, John Ridley (1935). Studies of Interference in Serial Verbal Reactions. Journal of

Experimental Psychology. 18 (6): 643–662.

Mueller, S. T. & Piper, B. J. (2014). The psychology experiment building language (PEBL)

and PEBL test battery. Journal of neuroscience methods, 222, 250-259.

Cohen, J. D., Dunbar, K., & McClelland, J. L. (1990). On the control of automatic processes:

A parallel distributed processing account of the Stroop effect. Psychological Review,

97(3), 332–361. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.97.3.332

Monahan, J. S. (2001). Coloring single stroop elements: Reducing automaticity or slowing

color processing? The Journal of General Psychology, 128(1), 98–112.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00221300109598901
Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of

Experimental Psychology, 18(6), 643–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054651

The Stroop Effect. (n.d.). Retrieved 24 August 2021, from

http://brainstormpsychology.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-stroop-effect.html

What is the Stroop Effect? (With pictures). (n.d.). Info Bloom. Retrieved 24 August 2021,

from http://www.infobloom.com/what-is-the-stroop-effect.htm