THE STROOP EFFECT

Arshika Thakur

Department of psychology, Indraprastha College

Cognitive Psychology

Ms. Swati Jain

02/10/24

THE STROOP EFFECT

AIM
To study the occurrence of Stroop Effect

BASIC CONCEPTS

Sensation and Perception

According to Fantino and Reynolds (1975), 'Perception is the organising process by which we
interpret our sensory input', while according to Bootzin, Bower, Crooker and Hall (1991). 'the
effortless, multimodal process of perception can be defined as the brain's attempt to describe
objects and events in the world, based on sensory input and knowledge. At any particular
moment our sense organs are stimulated by several sensory impulses; out of those few impulses
get organised as one unit or whole. The organised set of sensory impulses as a single unit
constitutes the object we perceive, and the remaining sensory impulses do not organise, rather
mix up with each other. Therefore, they are not perceived as objects at the moment. Perception is
thus, described as a process of organisation (Mohsin, 1988)(Akbar Hussain,2014,Experiments in
Psychology).
We understand that Sensation can be defined as the passive process of bringing information from
the outside world into the body and to our brain. We don't consciously engage in the ‘sensing’
process. Perception on the other hand can be defined as the active process of selecting,
organizing, and interpretation of the information brought to the brain by the senses. But there are
so many aspects at play in this whole process that can be understood further in depth.
We do often see the use of the terms ‘Sensation’ and ‘Perception’ interchangeably but we have to
realize that they are very distinct, yet complementary processes, (Shergill,2012).
 Sensation we can say is the activation of receptors in the various sense organs. The sensory
receptors are specialized form of neurons, cells that make up the nervous system, these receptors
are stimulated by different kinds of energy. For example, the receptors in the eyes are triggered
by light, whereas vibrations trigger the receptors in the ears.(Ciccarelli & Meyer,2008)
Perception we can say is a selective process of cognition because we cannot receive and process
all the available sensory information from our surroundings at a time. Perception has
individuality to it, by this we mean that no two people will perceive the world exactly the same
way. For example, two people might be looking at a cloud, while one thinks it's shaped like a
Rabbit while the other might think it's shaped like a Cow.
In simple words it can be said that Sensation refers to the process of collection of data from our
surroundings by means of our senses,while perception is a dynamic process of searching for the
best available interpretation of the data received.

Perception, Attention and Interference

“Attention is the focusing of perception leading to heightened awareness of a limited range of

stimuli” (Hilgard, Atkinson and Atkinson,1979). We focus on a small portion of visual or
auditory stimuli at any point of time while ignoring the rest of the stimuli, as we cannot absorb
all the available sensory information in our environment. We understand that the psychological
process of attention is assumed to select information for conscious thought and since our amount
of conscious capacity is limited, attention simultaneously forbids other information from
reaching awareness (Hussain,2014). Through this process of selective attention our perceptual
ability is enhanced (Moran and Desimone,1985).
There are dominant effects of attention on perception, In the sense that we see and hear clearly
only those stimuli to which we pay attention. For an incident to be perceived, it must be observed
or focused upon. Attention is a general term referring to the selective aspects of perception which
function so that at any instant, an organism focuses on certain features of the environment to the
(relative) exclusion of other features. Moreover, attention itself is selective, so that attending to
one stimulus tends to inhibit or suppress the processing of others. Attention may be conscious in
that some stimulus elements are actively selected out of the total input, although, by and large,
we are not explicitly aware of the factors which are at play so that we only perceive some small
part of the total stimulus array,(Shergill,2012).
Distraction is a significant aspect of attention. When we get distracted, our focus shifts from
what we want to pay attention to something else. This shift depends on how strong or interesting
the new thing or stimulus is or the quality and intensity of the new stimulus.There are many
different things or stimulus in our environment that can distract us, Among them noise is
considered as an important distracter of attention. There is also common fluctuation in our
attention, it happens because of weakness in the intensity of the stimulus. In this aspect, at one
time a stimulus comes to our focus, while at another time it disappears. When attention is given
to a very mild stimulus, like a faint figure or distant sound, the stimulus appears to come and go.
For some moments, the stimulus reaches ones focus and at some moment it goes out of focus
(Hussain,2014).There is also division of Attention, Sometimes we perform two tasks
simultaneously, for example, cooking and listening to a podcast In such a situation it appears
that our attention is divided on both the tasks because both the tasks require conscious mental
processing, to think. If one of the two tasks is automatic one or does not need any physical effort
which one can perform without giving attention to it, while the second task may then alone be in
the focus of attention. Thus, simultaneous performance of both the tasks may not involve
division of attention. We can also look at it in another way as in a situation of we're preparing a
dish which we have prepared numerous times before we almost have a muscle memory of
preparing it and it requires very little attention so we can fully immerse ourselves into the
podcast.

Theoretical background

Filter theory
According to D. E. Broadbent's (1958) selective filter theory, people do not process unattended
stimuli beyond the analysis of basic physical properties (Lachter et al., 2004).Broadbent
proposed the notion that a filter acts as a buffer on incoming sensory information to select what
information gains conscious awareness. The attended information will pass through the filter,
while unattended information will be completely blocked and ignored. The filter acts on stimuli
solely on their physical characteristics, such as location, loudness, and pitch.(Donald Broadbent,
n.d.)

Attenuation theory
In 1964, Anne Treisman came up with the attenuation theory of attention. It suggests that instead
of totally ignoring or blocking out information we're not focusing on, our brain just weakens it.
Treisman used the example of an attenuator, An ‘attenuator’ is an electronic device that reduces
the amplitude or power of a signal without appreciably distorting its waveform. In simple words
it is a device that lowers the strength of a signal without messing with its shape. So, rather than
fully tuning out stuff we’re not paying attention to, it’s like the volume gets turned down.
Treisman thought that some important info from the stuff we're not focused on might still get
through, but it’s just harder to pick up (17.8 Treisman’s Attenuation Theory Of Attention, n.d.).

Late- selection theory

A late selection or response selection model proposed by Deutsch and Deutsch (1963) suggests
that all information in the unattended ear is processed on the basis of meaning, not just the
selected or highly pertinent information. However, only the information that is relevant for the
task response gets into conscious awareness. This model is consistent with ideas of subliminal
perception; in other words, that you don’t have to be aware of or attending a message for it to be
fully processed for meaning (Libretexts, 2021).

Attention, Capacity and Mental effort

Our brain can only handle a limited amount of information at once because of the limited
processing capacity of our nervous system. So, we end up focusing on a few things that stand out
to us while ignoring the rest. This ability to pay attention to certain things at a time is known as
our span of attention. In other words, the amount of stimulus which can be grasped correctly on a
brief exposure, may be called span of attention.
Postman (1954) found that the span of attention for meaningful word is larger than nonsense
syllables. A study indicated that span of attention is determined by many factors. Some of them
are subject related, like age, sex, motivation, interest, etc., Similarly, organisation,
meaningfulness, and homogeneity, and intensity of stimulus are considered as stimulus-related
factors which have serious impact on our span of attention (Hussain,2014)

Factors Affecting Attention and Perception

There are several factors that can affect attention. Each of these factors can
increase or decrease a person’s attention to a certain object, person or
concept. These could be classified under two broad categories namely
external factors and internal factors.
External factors
Factors which are present outside the stimuli or situation refer to external
factors. These can also be called as objective factors. This involves: motion,
size, intensity, novelty, emotion, personal significance and social cues. And next Internal factors,
they are concerned with the individual. Hence it is also called as
subjective factors.

Intensity
Attention:Intense objects attract our attention. Loud sound, bright objects
and strong smell draws our attention easily.

Size
Attention: Size has an effect on attention. Objects or text that is larger gain
more attention than normal or small objects. At the same time very small
objects too draws our attention when compared to normal size. When a
dwarf man is seen, people will have a tendency to look at the person.

Novelty
Attention: New things attract people more. Students pay more attention to a
new way of teaching or a new teacher. "Stimuli that are novel or unusual
tend to draw people's attention." (Ormrod, 2008, p. 172)
Movement
Attention: Adults and children are more likely to pay attention to an object
when there is motion involved. (Ormrod, 2008). Example: Children are
more drawn to toys and objects that move such as toy cars, moving dolls.

Color

Interest
Attention: People always give more attention to stimuli or situation in which
they are interested. Interesting things draws our attention immediately. A
Singer may give more attention to songs when he travels instead of the
beautiful buildings on the way, whereas an Architect may show more
attention towards the Beautiful buildings. Attention and Interest are inter-
connected and mutually dependent. They are like two sides of a coin. To
pay attention to an object, a person or an activity is to have interest in
them. Mc Dougall has very cogently said, “Interest is latent attention and
attention is interest in action.” The interest of a person plays a key role in
determining one’s attention. Each of our interests may be regarded as a
powerful stimulus to draw our attention to a particular thing, person or an
activity.

Anxiety

Arousal

Task difficulty

When Our Attention Fails Us

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness

Spatial Neglect – One half of the world goes amiss

What is Stroop Effect? Why does it occur?

The Stroop effect is our tendency to experience difficulty naming a physical color when it is used
to spell the name of a different color. Conducted in the 1930s by psychologist John Ridley
Stroop.This simple finding plays a huge role in psychological research and clinical psychology.
There are few theories about the occurrence of the Stroop effect: Selective Attention Theory:
According to the second edition of the “Handbook of Psychology,” selective attention chooses
“which information will be granted access to further processing and awareness and which will be
ignored.” In relation to the Stroop effect, identifying the color of the words takes more attention
than simply reading the text. Therefore, this theory suggests that our brains process the written
information instead of the colors themselves.
Another one is the Automaticity Theory, In this we believe that our two types of cognitive
processing include automatic and controlled thinking. In relation to the Stroop effect, the brain
likely reads the word because reading is more of an automated process than recognizing
colors.Next is the Speed of Processing Theory, Simply stated,In this theory we believe that we
can process written words faster than we can process colors. Thus, it is difficult to identify the
color once we’ve already read the word (What the Stroop Effect Reveals About Our Minds |
Lesley University, n.d.).

Study by Stroop (1935)

In Stroop’s original study, he used three elements: names of colors printed in black ink, names of
colors printed in different ink than the color named, and squares of each given color. He then
conducted his experiment in two parts: In his first experiment, he asked participants to simply
read the color printed in black ink. He then asked them to read the words printed, regardless of
the color they were printed in. And for his second experiment, he asked participants to name the
ink color instead of the word written. For example, “red” might have been printed in green and
participants were asked to identify the color green instead of reading the word “red.” In this
segment, participants were also asked to identify the color of the squares.
Stroop found that subjects took longer to complete the task of naming the ink colors of words in
experiment two than they took to identify the color of the squares. Subjects also took
significantly longer to identify ink colors in experiment two than they had to simply read the
printed word in experiment one. He identified this effect as an interference causing a delay in
identifying a color when it is incongruent with the word printed(Classics in the History of
Psychology, n.d.).

Description of the Stroop Test (Golden & Freshwater, 2002)

The Stroop test (Stroop, 1935; Golden & Freshwater, 2002) is a measure of verbal processing
speed and response inhibition that is widely used in present day neuropsychological assessment
(National Center for Biotechnology Information, n.d.). It consists of three timed trials. The first
two trials measure the speed at which participants can read color words (red, green, blue; Word
Reading, W) and name the color of blocks of ink in red, green, and blue (Color Naming, C). The
third “Color-Word” (CW) trial is called the ‘interference trial’ and requires the examinee to
name the ink color of printed words (red, green, blue) in which the ink color and word are
incongruent. The speed of performance on the Color-Word trial is subtracted from the speed on
the Color Naming trial to calculate interference. Interference occurs when the processing of one
type of information disrupts the simultaneous processing of another type of information . In the
Stroop test, participants are distracted from the goal of naming the ink color by the urge to read
the word itself. It seems that the words themselves are especially hard to ignore because they are
correlated with the task’s target information.

Review of literature

1. Kiyonaga, A., & Egner, T. (2014). The Working Memory Stroop Effect: When Internal
Representations Clash With External Stimuli. Psychological Science, 25(8), 1619–1629.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24543593

This study looks at how Working Memory (WM) and attention work together, especially through
something called the Stroop effect. The authors suggest that working memory is like focusing
your attention inward. This means that when you’re trying to keep information in your mind (like
a color word), it can influence how you respond to things happening around you, just like how
paying attention to something external works.
The classic Stroop effect shows that when people have to name the color of the ink a word is
printed in (for example, saying the word "red" when it’s in blue ink), they find it hard to do so if
the word and color don’t match. This confusion happens because the brain is trying to process
conflicting information. The researchers conducted three experiments to see if holding a color
word (like "red" or "blue") in your working memory would interfere with your ability to
complete a task that involves identifying colors.
They wanted to find out if thinking about a color word while trying to say what color something
is would create confusion like in the original Stroop effect. In these experiments, participants had
to remember a color word while also identifying colors (like seeing the word "red" in blue ink
and stating the color of the ink). The researchers measured how often participants got confused
or made mistakes when the color word in their head didn’t match the color they were looking at,
similar to the classic Stroop effect.
The results showed that holding a color word in working memory did create interference, just
like the Stroop effect. Participants struggled more when the information in their memory clashed
with the task. The researchers found that both the type of stimulus (whether it matched the
expected color) and the response (the answer given by the participant) impacted the results. The
greater the mismatch between the word and the color, the more interference occurred. They
noticed that the ability to hold information in working memory was also affected by how much
attention the task required. If the task was tough (like when dealing with mismatched colors),
participants did worse at recalling the information they were trying to remember.
In conclusion, the study suggests that working memory and attention use the same mental
resources and function similarly. This means that how we keep and manage information in our
minds can directly affect our ability to process new information from our surroundings.

Factors affecting Stroop Effect

Applications of Stroop Effect

In the Stroop experiment, we realise how strong the interference is when trying to name the color
of a word that's printed in a different color. As soon as we learn to read, we start experiencing
this interference. Even though we usually think recognizing colors is easy, the Stroop effect
shows that there’s actually some mental processing happening, and this can get interrupted.
Some of this interference comes from having to choose between two different responses (the
word and the color), but that doesn’t tell us much about how we process colors. However, the
fact that even color-related words not in the response set can cause interference shows that
meaning also plays a role in the Stroop effect.
In recent years, this fascinating effect has been used for all sorts of things, including
understanding the functions of certain brain areas like the anterior cingulate cortex and the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which are both active when we need to resolve conflict. In the
Stroop task, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex seems to help with executive functions like
keeping us focused on naming the color instead of reading the word, while the anterior cingulate
cortex helps us pick the right response and check if it's correct.
After 80 years, one thing is clear: this simple experiment still gives us a ton of insight into how
our brains work. It’s amazing that something as basic as comparing colors and their names has
turned out to be such a powerful tool for understanding cognitive processes(Home, n.d.),
(MacLeod, 2015).

HYPOTHESES
A researcher begins with a set of phenomena and either constructs a theory to explain or interpret
them or chooses an existing theory to work with. He or she then makes a prediction about some
new phenomenon that should be observed if the theory is correct. This prediction is called a
hypothesis.The researcher then conducts an empirical study to test the hypothesis. Finally, he or
she reevaluates the theory in light of the new results and revises it if necessary. This process is
usually conceptualized as a cycle because the researcher can then derive a new hypothesis from
the revised theory, conduct a new empirical study to test the hypothesis, and so on. A good
hypothesis needs to include operationalized variables that can be measured. It also must be
testable and potentially falsifiable.The hypothesis is testable by carrying out the activity and
gathering data that may support or refute the statement.It is important to formulate a hypothesis
to conduct a valid scientific investigation. Without a clear and valid hypothesis, the results of a
study may be unreliable, invalid, or pseudoscientific. A research hypothesis, in its plural form
“hypotheses,” is a specific, testable prediction about the anticipated results of a study, established
at its outset. It is a key component of the scientific method.(Pressbooks)

VARIABLES
A variable is anything ‘that we can observe. Any particular observation is called a value of a
variable’ (Edwards,1968). A variable is a quantity or quality that varies across people or
situations. For example, the height of the students enrolled in a university course is a variable
because it varies from student to student. The chosen major of the students is also a variable as
long as not everyone in the class has declared the same major. It does not mean that only the
qualities of organisms or events are variables which are quantifiable; rather qualities like race,
religion, gender, etc., that describe the quality of an individual are also variables (Hussain,2014).
In order to make an observation precise in science, we have to give it a quantitative description
and methods. In other words the scientist no longer merely observes and describes objects, but
also measures them (Mohsin,1984). Noise can be an example of a variable as it changes it's
intensity and may be continuous and intermittent. Similarly, height, weight, shape, size and age
are the examples of variables.
Types of variables
The variables considered in behavioural studies have been classified into two broad categories.
These variables are known as independent and dependent variables.

Independent Variable
A behavioral science tries to examine the relationship between cause and effect. These causal
variable is called independent variable.The independent variable is the variable that is
manipulated to test its effect on the dependent variable (Kerlinger,2002). The IV is what the
researcher proposes as the cause of a phenomenon. Thus, by manipulating changes in the IV, the
researcher can establish if the changes affect the DV. The researcher doesn't always have to
manipulate the IV. Sometimes it can be naturally occurring. A researcher can't manipulate the
sun, but it can measure how exposed the subject is to sunshine.

Dependent Variables
A behavioral science tries to examine the relationship between cause and effect. The effect
variable is known as dependent variable.The dependent variable is the outcome that is measured.
The DV is what the researcher expects to be the outcome/ changes that occur due to
manipulating the IV; therefore, it is considered the effect.In experimental research, cause-and-
effect can be determined as the researcher measures the IV and DV whilst controlling external
influences.

Control Variables
Control means the exercise of the scientific method whereby the various treatments in an
experiment are regulated so that the casual factors may be unambiguously identified. Control is
any method for dealing with extraneous variables that may affect our study. A good research
should control the effects of extraneous variables which are more or less similar to IV or
variables that have capacity to influence the DV or variables.Therefore, in a psychological
experiment the experimenter makes provision to check the effect of such variables by keeping
them under control because such variables can produce unwanted changes in the behaviour of the
subject. Such a provision of control is called experimental control.
There are various ways to control the effects of extraneous variables.One of the important
methods is the method of elimination. In this method the experimenter makes provision in the
experiment to remove such types of variables from the experiment, provided the experimenter is
aware about the effect of those variables before conducting the experiment. Secondly, the
extraneous variables can also be kept under control by keeping the values of independent
variables constant in both the conditions, that is, the controlled, as well as experimental
conditions. By keeping them constant the effect of dependent variable can be found similar in
both the conditions, and the variation in dependent variable may not be caused by the extraneous
variables because of experimental variable. This method is called method of constant conditions.
Another important method of dealing with the effect of extraneous variables is randomisation.
It refers to technique in which each member of the population or universe at large has an equal
and independent chance of being selected in the groups. There are three phases in
Randomisation– random selection of subjects, random assignment of subjects into control and
experimental groups, and random assignment of experimental treatments among different
groups.

DESIGN
PROCEDURE
Materials Required
Experimental Setting
Precautions
Preliminaries
Rapport Formation
Informed Consent
Instructions and Conduction
Introspective Report
Interview
Location: Delhi University, Indraprastha College of women, Psychology Lab 22B
Time:
Interviewer: Arshika Thakur
Interviewee: Devika

Interviewer: “uh..How are you feeling today?”

Interviewee: “ l’m feeling a little sick..a..but it's okay.”

Interviewer: “okay…are you..are you nervous…are you relaxed…are you comfortable?”

Interviewee: “I'm relaxed now…cuz I'm done with the test.”

Interviewer: “Okay…which condition did you find the easiest?”

Interviewee: “The first one..when I just had to read the words.”

Interviewer: “okay…so why was that.. because you just had to read….”

Interviewee: “ha….yeah”

Interviewer: “and which condition did you find the hardest?”

Interviewee: “The last one because I was getting distracted by the colour…

Interviewer: okay….

Interviewee: …..and the words.”

Interviewer: “Uh…did you use any specific strategy to complete the task in any condition?”

Interviewee: “No…I was just trying to be a bit faster.”

(Sound of chair scraping the ground)

Interviewer: “ah…if you were to repeat this activity will you do anything differently?”

Interviewee: “No…I guess”

Interviewer: “Okay….Thankyou”

Interviewee: “Thankyou”

Experimenter’s Observations
DATA
ANALYSIS OF DATA
RESULTS
INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

References

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Bootzin, R., Bower, G.H, Crooket, J. and Hall, E., Psychology Today, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1991

Mohsin, S.M., Elementary Psychology, Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 1988

Hussain A., Experiments in Psychology, PHI Learning, New Delhi, 2014

Shergill, H.K., Experimental Psychology, PHI Learning, New Delhi, 2012

Ciccarelli, Meyer, Psychology, Pearson Education, Inc., 2006

Hilgard, E.R., Atkinson, R.C. and Atkinson, R.L., Introduction to Psychology, Hart Court Brase
Jovanovich, Inc., New York, 1979

Moran J, Desimone R. Selective attention gates visual processing in the extrastriate cortex.
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Golden CJ, Freshwater SM. The Stroop Color and Word Test: A Manual for Clinical and
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