Experiment 1

Aim: The purpose of this experiment is to investigate the Stroop effect and to investigate
how interference affects participant’s ability in both the conditions

Introduction

In simple words, Attention is the ability to actively process specific information in the
environment while tuning out other details.

Attention is a process which is carried out through cognitive abilities and helped by
emotional and behavioural factors to select something out of the various stimuli present in
one’s environment and bring it in the centre of one’s consciousness in order to perceive it
clearly

 Controlled processing: Controlled processing requires us to pay attention and

deliberately put in effort. Controlled processing is intentionally done while we are
consciously aware of what we are doing. In other words, we actually have to think about
what is going on and make decisions. We are in 'control' of these processes.

 Automatic processing: Automatic processing does not require us to pay attention, nor do
we have to deliberately put in effort to control automatic processes. Automatic
processing occurs without us giving much thought to it. If we practice something long
enough, it becomes automatic.

The Stroop effect is a phenomenon that occurs when you must say the colour of a word but
not the name of the word. For example, blue might be printed in red and you must say the
colour rather than the word.

the Stroop effect refers to the delayed reaction times when the colour of the word doesn't
match the name of the word. For e.g. : f someone asked you to say the colour of the word
"black" that was also printed in black ink, it would be much easier to say the correct colour
than if it were printed in green ink.

The Stroop test requires individuals to view a list of words that are printed in a different
color than the meaning of the word. Participants are tasked with naming the color of the
word, not the word itself, as fast as they can.

The task demonstrates the effect that interference can have when it comes to reaction time.
It was first described during the 1930s by American psychologist John Ridley Stroop for
whom the phenomenon is named. His original paper describing the effect has become one
of the most famous, as well as one of the most frequently cited, in the history of psychology

 Theories of Stroop Effect

Selective Attention theory : Selective attention is the process of focusing on a particular

object in the environment for a certain period of time.  According to this theory, naming the

actual colour of the words requires much more attention than simply reading the text.
Because of this, the brain needs to use more attention when attempting to name a color,
making this process take slightly longer

Speed of processing theory: This theory states that people can read words much faster than
they can name colours. The speed at which we read makes it much more difficult to name
the colour of the word after we've read the word.
When we look at the incongruent stimuli (the word “green” printed in red, for example), our
brain first reads the word, making it much more difficult to then have to name the color.
As a result, a delay occurs when trying to name the color because doing so was not our
brain’s first instinct

Automaticity: Automaticity is simply the ability to be able to something without thinking

about it. This theory argues that recognizing colors is not an automatic process, and thus
there is a slight hesitancy when carrying out this action. Recognizing colours is less of an
automated process. While the brain registers written meaning automatically, it does require
a certain amount of attentional resources to process colour, making it more difficult to
process colour information and therefore slowing down reaction times.

Review of literature

1. Linnman et al. (2006) studied the Stroop effect on the internet. For this experiment
they converted the classic Stroop test into a web version and tested its effects
against a standard computerized version of the test. In their first experiment they
tested 20 males and 20 females individually for both tests in random order. They
conducted a second experiment with 28 participants to see if the test results of the
web version of the Stroop test could be replicated in a less controlled setting. Their
results showed that in the first experiment a strong Stroop effect could be seen in
both the versions, but the response time was overall slower for the web version. The
second experiment showed that these results could be replicated in less controlled
setting using the web Stroop.
 2. Baroun & Alansari (2009) studied the differences in performance in Stroop task due
to gender. In their study they had 504 Kuwaiti university students, 122 men and 382
women. Their experiment was conducted in three sets of cards in the Stroop color
and word test. In their results it could be seen that women performed better in 2
sets out of 3 i.e.: the color card and color word cards but there was not a significant
difference in the word card test. They concluded by saying that their results
substantiate that there are gender differences.

3. Algom et al. (2009) studied an experimental design for the emotional Stroop effect.
In this experiment they presented the same set of words polarized to be negative in
one condition and neutral in another condition to the participants. This was done
using appropriate prime words to produce the desired direction through idiomatic
two-word expressions. Their results showed that participants took longer to name
the colour of the same words when they were seen as negative than when they were
neutral. This difference according to the researchers reflects a true emotional Stroop
effect.
Method

Hypothesis 1 - The reaction time for the congruent condition will be significantly faster than
that of the incongruent condition.

Hypothesis 2 - Fewer mistakes will be made within the congruent condition in comparison
to the incongruent condition.

Design
A repeated measures design was used for this experiment. This requires using the same
participants for each condition – congruent and incongruent. This allows the responses from
an individual for the congruent condition to be directly compared to their response for the
incongruent condition. There were two conditions being compared. The congruent
condition consisted of words written in the same color ink e.g., the word ‘red’ was written in
red ink. The second condition was incongruent e.g., ‘red’ written in blue ink.

Subject preliminaries
Name: XYZ
Age: 16 years
Gender: Male
Educational Qualification: Student of class 12th

Materials Required:
  Two sets of cards, i.e., one having the same ink colour name card and the other one
in which the ink of the colour is different from the name of the colours.
 Stopwatch & paper and pencils.

Variables
Independent Variable: Two sets of cards (i.e., congruent, and incongruent conditions).
Dependent Variable:
1. Reaction time taken by the subject to respond for each card.
2. Error committed by the subject for each card.

Rapport Formation: The subject was called and made to sit comfortably; a conversation was
held to make him feel comfortable. The instructions were given, and all doubts he had were
cleared. He was asked if he was ready to begin and upon his answer the experiment was
started.

Instructions
“I will show you the card and you have to name the color of the ink in which words are
written. Whatever response comes first in your mind you have to mention that response in
an audible voice. If you have any query regarding the experiment, you can ask me without
any hesitation.”

Precautions
 It was ensured that the lighting facility in the lab was proper.
 The name of the colour were presented in a random manner to avoid the chance of
being fatigued and repetitiveness.
 It was made sure that there was no background noise to avoid unwanted
distractions.
 The size of the cards was same in both the conditions.

Procedure:
The subject was made to sit in a quiet and comfortable lab. Rapport had been established
with the subject by convincing them that their responses will be kept confidential. Then, the
instructions were given to the subject. As such there is no time limit to complete the
experiment but you have to respond to whatever response comes to your mind at the first
place. One by one the cards were shown to the subjects and their responses and time taken
were noted down.

Introspective Report
“Even after getting the instructions, I was pretty nervous about my performance, but I think
I did really well.”
Observational Report
The subject was nervous and anxious at first but after doing one trial he was eased into the
experiment. The subject did pretty well.

Results

LIST TIME TAKEN ERRORS (Average)

(Average)
CONGRUENT 30.5/24= 1.27 1/24= 0.04
INCONGRUENT 45/24= 1.87 3/24=0.12

Result and Discussion

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the Stroop effect and to investigate how
interference affects participants ability in both the conditions.

In the present experiment the hypotheses were: The reaction time for the congruent
condition will be significantly faster than that of the incongruent condition and fewer
mistakes will be made within the congruent conditions in comparison to the incongruent
condition

The result of the present experiment shows that in the congruent condition the subject
committed 0.04 errors and took 1.27 seconds on average to complete the task.
But in the incongruent condition the same subject took 1.87 seconds to complete the task
and committed 0.12 errors.

From the above results we can see that the subject took more time to finish the incongruent
condition as compared to the congruent condition and hence our first hypothesis has been
proved.

We can also see that the subject committed more errors in the incongruent lists than in the
congruent list, thus the second hypothesis is also proven. The cause of these errors in the
incongruent condition can be explained due to cognitive interference.

West & Alain (2000) conducted a study on the effects of task context and fluctuations of
attention on neural activity supporting performance of the Stroop task. Their results showed
that the processing of colour of the ink was greater when trials were mostly congruent in
comparison to when trials were mostly incongruent

Dong et al (2011) conducted a study where they investigated the executive control ability of
male students with Internet addiction disorder (IAD) by recording event-related brain
potentials (ERP) during a colour-word Stroop task. The results showed that IAD students
were associated with longer reaction time and more response errors in incongruent
conditions than the control group.

Conclusion

We can conclude as the subject took more time and committed more errors in the
incongruent list as compared to the congruent list, thus proving both of our hypotheses.
 References

Linnman, C., Carlbring, P., ÅHman, S., Andersson, H., & Andersson, G. (2006). The Stroop

effect on the internet. Computers in Human Behaviour, 22(3), 448–455.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.09.010

Baroun, K., & Alansari, B. (2006). GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PERFORMANCE ON THE STROOP

TEST. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 34(3), 309–318.

https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2006.34.3.309

Algom, D., Zakay, D., Monar, O., & Chajut, E. (2009). Wheel chairs and arm chairs: A novel

experimental design for the emotional Stroop effect. Cognition & Emotion, 23(8),

1552–1564. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930802490243

Cherry, K. (n.d.). What Attention Means in Psychology. Verywell Mind. Retrieved September

1, 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-attention-2795009

S, R. (2016, August 17). Notes on Attention: Meaning, Types and Determinants | Psychology.

Psychology Discussion - Discuss Anything About Psychology.

https://www.psychologydiscussion.net/notes/psychology-notes/attention-and-

perception/notes-on-attention-meaning-types-and-determinants-psychology/1965

Cherry, K. (n.d.-a). How the Stroop Effect Works. Verywell Mind. Retrieved September 1,

2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-stroop-effect-2795832

Cherry, K. (n.d.-b). How We Use Selective Attention to Filter Information and Focus.

Verywell Mind. Retrieved September 1, 2021, from

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-selective-attention-2795022

Cherry, K. (n.d.-a). Automaticity Is How We Do Things Without Really Thinking. Verywell

Mind. Retrieved September 1, 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-

automaticity-2795018

Dong, G., Zhau, H., & Zhao, X. (2011). Male Internet addicts show impaired executive

control ability: Evidence from a color-word Stroop task. Neuroscience Letters,

499(2). 114-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2011.05.047

West, R., & Alain, C. (2000). Effects of task context and fluctuations of attention on neural

activity supporting performance of the Stroop task. Brain Research, 873(1), 102–111.

https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-8993(00)02530-0