Things Can Be Told Apart

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Nett ◽  
Christian Frings
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Spatial Mismatch ◽  
Categorization Task ◽  
Distance Effects ◽  
Stroop Effects

A recent finding suggests that people use spatial distances of responses to separate nonspatial information in a simple categorization task like the Stroop task. It was suggested that the larger the distance becomes the easier the categorization will get; indeed, with large distances between response keys a smaller Stroop effect was observed by Lakens and colleagues (2011) as compared with small distances. This is a noteworthy finding albeit the published experiments suffer from two confounds which open the door for explanations of the distance effects in terms of spatial mismatch and recoding strategies. We conceptually replicated the results previously observed without these confounds and confirm the main result of Lakens et al. (2011) in that Stroop effects were significantly smaller if the distance between the response keys increased.

Depth of Processing in the Stroop Task

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 385-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ami Eidels ◽  
Kathryn Ryan ◽  
Paul Williams ◽  
Daniel Algom
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Depth Of Processing ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Voluntary Reading ◽  
The Face ◽  
Stroop Effects

The presence of the Stroop effect betrays the fact that the carrier words were read in the face of instructions to ignore them and to respond to the target ink colors. In this study, we probed the nature of this involuntary reading by comparing color performance with that in a new forced-reading Stroop task in which responding is strictly contingent on reading each and every word. We found larger Stroop effects in the forced-reading task than in the classic Stroop task and concluded that words are processed to a shallower level in the Stroop task than they are in routine voluntary reading. The results show that the two modes of word processing differ in systematic ways and are conductive to qualitatively different representations. These results can pose a challenge to the strongly automatic view of word reading in the Stroop task.

What Is Learned, and When?

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Gast
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Learning Situation ◽  
Stroop Effects

In the musical Stroop task, which has recently been introduced by Grégoire, Perruchet, and Poulin-Charronat (2013), participants respond to note names that are placed inside musical notes. Musicians respond more slowly to note names that are incongruent with the note than to note names that are congruent with the note. Grégoire et al. propose to use this task to study the acquisition of automaticity by relating musical Stroop effects to the amount of musical experience. I discuss some caveats that have to be considered for these types of analyses. Specifically, I focus on how different contingencies in the learning situation relate to the Stroop effect and on the question whether a long-term perspective is suitable for studying the acquisition of automaticity.

A Unique Asymmetrical Stroop Effect in Absolute Pitch Possessors

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 272-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilach Akiva-Kabiri ◽  
Avishai Henik
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Color Naming ◽  
Reading Task ◽  
Pitch Processing ◽  
Reverse Pattern

The Stroop task has been employed to study automaticity or failures of selective attention for many years. The effect is known to be asymmetrical, with words affecting color naming but not vice versa. In the current work two auditory-visual Stroop-like tasks were devised in order to study the automaticity of pitch processing in both absolute pitch (AP) possessors and musically trained controls without AP (nAP). In the tone naming task, participants were asked to name the auditory tone while ignoring a visual note name. In the note naming task, participants were asked to read a note name while ignoring the auditory tone. The nAP group showed a significant congruency effect only in the tone naming task, whereas AP possessors showed the reverse pattern, with a significant congruency effect only in the note reading task. Thus, AP possessors were unable to ignore the auditory tone when asked to read the note, but were unaffected by the verbal note name when asked to label the auditory tone. The results suggest that pitch identification in participants endowed with AP ability is automatic and impossible to suppress.

Is the Musical Stroop Effect Able to Keep Its Promises?

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Grégoire ◽  
Pierre Perruchet ◽  
Bénédicte Poulin-Charronnat
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Extensive Training ◽  
Natural Settings ◽  
Current Procedure

Grégoire, Perruchet, and Poulin-Charronnat (2013) claimed that the Musical Stroop task, which reveals the automaticity of note naming in musician experts, provides a new tool for studying the development of automatisms through extensive training in natural settings. Many of the criticisms presented in the four commentaries published in this issue appear to be based on a misunderstanding of our procedure, or questionable postulates. We maintain that the Musical Stroop Effect offers promising possibilities for further research on automaticity, with the main proviso that the current procedure makes it difficult to tease apart facilitation and interference.

scholarly journals Modulation of Conflict Processing by Theta-Range tACS over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Lehr ◽  
Niklas Henneberg ◽  
Tarana Nigam ◽  
Walter Paulus ◽  
Andrea Antal
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Control Network ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Control Network ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

Behavioral response conflict arises in the color-word Stroop task and triggers the cognitive control network. Midfrontal theta-band oscillations correlate with adaptive control mechanisms during and after conflict resolution. In order to prove causality, in two experiments, we applied transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at 6 Hz to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during Stroop task performance. Sham stimulation served as a control in both experiments; 9.7 Hz tACS served as a nonharmonic alpha band control in the second experiment. We employed generalized linear mixed models for analysis of behavioral data. Accuracy remained unchanged by any type of active stimulation. Over both experiments, the Stroop effect (response time difference between congruent and incongruent trials) was reduced by 6 Hz stimulation as compared to sham, mainly in trials without prior conflict adaptation. Alpha tACS did not modify the Stroop effect. Theta tACS can both reduce the Stroop effect and modulate adaptive mechanisms of the cognitive control network, suggesting midfrontal theta oscillations as causally involved in cognitive control.

Classic Stroop Color Words Produce No Stroop Effect When the Display Characteristics Are Based Upon Emotional Stroop Studies With Subliminal Presentations

2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 1207-1225
Author(s):  
Gary D. Fisk ◽  
Steven J. Haase
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Color Word ◽  
Perceptual Processing ◽  
Emotional Stroop ◽  
Prime Stimulus ◽  
Emotional Stroop Task ◽  
Subliminal Stimulus ◽  
Negative Findings ◽  
Research Findings

Two forms of the Stroop task have produced contradictory findings regarding unconscious perceptual processing. Emotional Stroop task studies with prime words presented at an objective threshold (i.e., subliminal) produce Stroop-like effects, but comparable studies conducted with classic Stroop stimuli do not produce Stroop effects. We tested the possibility that differences in the display appearance might explain this discrepancy. Color word prime stimuli from the traditional Stroop task were used with display characteristics based upon the emotional Stroop studies. There was a Stroop effect for the relatively long prime stimulus durations (59, 87, or 108 milliseconds) but not for the brief durations (18, 24, or 38 milliseconds). Accordingly, the discrepancy in research findings cannot be attributed to simple differences in display methodology. The failure to find strong evidence of unconscious perceptual processing is consistent with the negative findings from some emotional Stroop studies that use subliminal stimulus presentations.

To Group or n o t t o g r o u p

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Reynolds ◽  
Donna Kwan ◽  
Daniel Smilek
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Organization ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Real World ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Color Word ◽  
Gestalt Principles ◽  
Common Fate ◽  
The Real ◽  
Color Grouping ◽  
The Impact

Eight experiments are reported that examine the contextual factors that influence the magnitude of color-word interference in the Stroop task. In Part 1 of the paper (Experiments 1–4) we varied letter-letter grouping using Gestalt principles of proximity and similarity. In Part 2 of the paper (Experiments 5–8) we varied word-color grouping using the Gestalt principles of similarity and common fate. The magnitude of the Stroop effect was strongly influenced by changes in both letter-letter grouping in the color-word and word-color grouping. Overall, the results suggest two ways in which perceptual organization influences the magnitude of Stroop color-word interference and more generally, that there are systematic principles that govern the impact of visually presented words across a variety of laboratory contexts and the real world.

Selective reinforcement of conflict processing in the Stroop task

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Prével ◽  
Ruth Krebs ◽  
Nanne Kukkonen ◽  
Senne Braem
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Conflict Processing ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Threshold Procedure ◽  
Reward Contingencies ◽  
New Guidelines

Motivation signals have been shown to influence the engagement of cognitive control processes. However, most studies focus on the invigorating effect of reward prospect, rather than the reinforcing effect of reward feedback. The present study aimed to test whether people strategically adapt conflict processing when confronted with condition-specific congruency-reward contingencies in a manual Stroop task. Results show that the size of the Stroop effect can be affected by selectively rewarding responses following incongruent versus congruent trials. However, our findings also suggest important boundary conditions. Our first two experiments only show a modulation of the Stroop effect in the first half of the experimental blocks, possibly due to our adaptive threshold procedure demotivating adaptive behavior over time. The third experiment showed an overall modulation of the Stroop effect, but did not find evidence for a similar modulation on test items, leaving open whether this effect generalizes to the congruency conditions, or is stimulus-specific. More generally, our results are consistent with computational models of cognitive control and support contemporary learning perspectives on cognitive control. The findings also offer new guidelines and directions for future investigations on the selective reinforcement of cognitive control processes.

Neural basis of the emotional Stroop interference effect in major depression

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. Mitterschiffthaler ◽  
S. C. R. Williams ◽  
N. D. Walsh ◽  
A. J. Cleare ◽  
C. Donaldson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Emotional Stroop ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Verbal Responses ◽  
Emotional Stroop Task ◽  
Emotional Stroop Effect

BackgroundA mood-congruent sensitivity towards negative stimuli has been associated with development and maintenance of major depressive disorder (MDD). The emotional Stroop task assesses interference effects arising from the conflict of emotional expressions consistent with disorder-specific self-schemata and cognitive colour-naming instructions. Functional neuroimaging studies of the emotional Stroop effect advocate a critical involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during these processes.MethodSubjects were 17 medication-free individuals with unipolar MDD in an acute depressive episode (mean age 39 years), and 17 age-, gender- and IQ-matched healthy volunteers. In an emotional Stroop task, sad and neutral words were presented in various colours, and subjects were required to name the colour of words whilst undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Overt verbal responses were acquired with a clustered fMRI acquisition sequence.ResultsIndividuals with depression showed greater increases in response time from neutral to sad words relative to controls. fMRI data showed a significant engagement of left rostral ACC (BA 32) and right precuneus during sad words in patients relative to controls. Additionally, rostral ACC activation was positively correlated with latencies of negative words in MDD patients. Healthy controls did not have any regions of increased activation compared to MDD patients.ConclusionsThese findings provide evidence for a behavioural and neural emotional Stroop effect in MDD and highlight the importance of the ACC during monitoring of conflicting cognitive processes and mood-congruent processing in depression.

scholarly journals The Color of Sin

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 1019-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary D. Sherman ◽  
Gerald L. Clore
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Color Naming ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Cleaning Products ◽  
Final Study ◽  
Automatic Associations ◽  
Study Participants

Three studies examined automatic associations between words with moral and immoral meanings and the colors black and white. The speed of color naming in a Stroop task was faster when words in black concerned immorality (e.g., greed), rather than morality, and when words in white concerned morality (e.g., honesty), rather than immorality. In addition, priming immorality by having participants hand-copy an unethical statement speeded identification of words in the black font. Making immorality salient in this way also increased the moral Stroop effect among participants who had not previously shown it. In the final study, participants also rated consumer products. Moral meanings interfered with color naming most strongly among those participants who rated personal cleaning products as especially desirable. The moderation of the moral Stroop effect by individual differences in concerns about personal cleanliness suggests that ideas about purity and pollution are central to seeing morality in black and white.

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