Is There Semantic Conflict in the Stroop Task?

Author(s):  
Mariana Burca ◽  
Virginie Beaucousin ◽  
Pierre Chausse ◽  
Ludovic Ferrand ◽  
Benjamin A. Parris ◽  
...  

Abstract. This research addressed current controversies concerning the contribution of semantic conflict to the Stroop interference effect and its reduction by a single-letter coloring and cueing procedure. On the first issue, it provides, for the first time, unambiguous evidence for a contribution of semantic conflict to the (overall) Stroop interference effect. The reported data remained inconclusive on the second issue, despite being collected in a considerable sample and analyzed with both classical (frequentist) and Bayesian inferential approaches. Given that in all past Stroop studies, semantic conflict was possibly confounded with either response conflict (e.g., when semantic-associative items [ SKYblue] are used to induce semantic conflict) or with facilitation (when color-congruent items [ BLUEblue] are used as baseline to derive a magnitude for semantic conflict), its genuine contribution to the Stroop interference effect is the most critical result reported in the present study. Indeed, it leaves no doubt – in complete contrast to dominant single-stage response competition models (e.g., Roelofs, 2003 ) – that selection occurs at the semantic level in the Stroop task. The immediate implications for the composite (as opposed to unitary) nature of the Stroop interference effect and other still unresolved issues in the Stroop literature are outlined further.

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 509-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Einat Peles ◽  
Aviv Weinstein ◽  
Anat Sason ◽  
Miriam Adelson ◽  
Shaul Schreiber

ObjectivesTo evaluate the impaired attention selection (Stroop interference effect) and general performance [reaction times (RTs)] on the Stroop task among methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), pathological gambling (PG), both PG/OCD or none, and the influence if having ADHD.MethodsEighty-six patients and 15 control subjects underwent the Stroop task, which measured RTs of condition-related words (color, obsessive compulsive disorder, pathological gambling, addiction) and neutral words.ResultsMMT patients had longer RTs on the Stroop task compared with controls. RTs were longer among patients with OCD and in those who abused drugs on the study day. The combined PG/OCD group had the longest RTs, but they were also characterized as abusing more drugs, being older, and having worse cognitive status. Stroop color interference differed only among MMT patients with ADHD, and it was higher among those with OCD than those without OCD. The modified condition-related Stroop did not show any interference effect of OCD, addiction, or gambling words.ConclusionsMMT patients had generally poorer performance, as indicated by longer RTs, that were related to clinical OCD, drug abuse, poor cognitive state, and older age. Patients with both clinical OCD and ADHD had a higher Stroop interference effect, which is a reflection of an attention deficit. In order to improve clinical approach and treatment of MMT patients, OCD and ADHD should be evaluated (and treated as needed).


Author(s):  
Ben A. Parris ◽  
Dinkar Sharma ◽  
Brendan Weekes

Abstract. Coloring only a single letter in the Stroop task can result in a reduction or elimination of Stroop interference. The present experiments were designed to test whether this modulation of Stroop interference occurs at all letter positions. Specifically, we investigated whether Stroop interference was reduced when the colored letter occupied the optimal viewing position (OVP). The experiments show that Stroop interference is not reduced at the OVP (Experiment 1) and that Stroop interference at the OVP is significantly greater than at other letter positions (Experiments 1 and 2). This finding has important theoretical and methodological consequences for studies of automatic processing in visual word recognition.


2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (11) ◽  
pp. 1607-1616 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Schwartz ◽  
P. Verhaeghen

BackgroundIn this meta-analysis, we investigated whether response inhibition is sensitive to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) status and, if so, what influence maturation has on this attentional symptom of ADHD.MethodWe examined 25 studies that reported data on the Stroop color word test in children and adults with ADHD and in age-matched controls; average ages ranged from 9 to 41 years. We utilized a hierarchical approach to analyze the strength of the Stroop effect and whether the effect varies as a function of age. Additionally, we assessed potential differences in maturation rates based on reaction time (RT) of color and color-word conditions.ResultsFirst, we found that the relationship between color-word and color RT was multiplicative, and the slope of this function (the ratio of color-word RT over color RT) was identical across age groups and ADHD status. Second, we found that although ADHD individuals were on average 1.14 times slower than age-matched controls in both the color and the color-word condition, the maturation rate was identical for both groups.ConclusionsThe results from this analysis indicate that the Stroop interference effect is not larger in ADHD individuals than in age-matched controls. Further, we did not find evidence for differential maturation rates for persons with ADHD and the control groups. The Stroop interference effect appears to be immune to age, regardless of ADHD status.


1997 ◽  
Vol 84 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1123-1133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenn-Yeu Chen

The present study modeled the relationship between the Stroop and the neutral naming times to investigate the mechanism underlying the Stroop interference effect. 95 subjects took six alternative versions of the Stroop task and the naming times in the Stroop and neutral conditions were each averaged across the tasks to arrive at a more general measure of the Stroop and neutral naming times. Regression analysis of these general measures indicated a linear function with a small and nonsignificant intercept and a slope significantly greater than one. This finding is consistent with Chen's 1996 results and supports the hypothesis that the mechanism underlying the Stroop interference is interactive or multiplicative rather than stage-like or additive and that a ratio of Stroop over neutral naming times was psychologically a more appropriate measure.


2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 149-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montserrat Zurrón ◽  
Marta Ramos-Goicoa ◽  
Fernando Díaz

With the aim of establishing the temporal locus of the semantic conflict in color-word Stroop and emotional Stroop phenomena, we analyzed the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) elicited by nonwords, incongruent and congruent color words, colored words with positive and negative emotional valence, and colored words with neutral valence. The incongruent, positive, negative, and neutral stimuli produced interference in the behavioral response to the color of the stimuli. The P150/N170 amplitude was sensitive to the semantic equivalence of both dimensions of the congruent color words. The P3b amplitude was smaller in response to incongruent color words and to positive, negative, and neutral colored words than in response to the congruent color words and colored nonwords. There were no differences in the ERPs induced in response to colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence. Therefore, the P3b amplitude was sensitive to interference from the semantic content of the incongruent, positive, negative, and neutral words in the color-response task, independently of the emotional content of the colored words. In addition, the P3b amplitude was smaller in response to colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence than in response to the incongruent color words. Overall, these data indicate that the temporal locus of the semantic conflict generated by the incongruent color words (in the color-word Stroop task) and by colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence (in the emotional Stroop task) appears to occur in the range 300–450 ms post-stimulus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariba Abbasi ◽  
Hassan Hashemi ◽  
Mohammad Reza Samaei ◽  
Amir SavarDashtaki ◽  
Abooalfazl Azhdarpoor ◽  
...  

AbstractThe 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay is the most common method for the determination of cell toxicity, but some factors limit the sensitivity of this method, such as pH. Less attention had been paid to the interference effect of optical and plasmonic properties of SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) in the wavelength range assigned to MTT. This study investigated the synergistic interference effect of SiO2 NPs and wavelength on MTT assay for the first time. The examined variables included the type of SiO2 NPs concentrations (1, 10, and 100 mM) and different wavelengths (470, 490, 520, and 570 nm). The results showed that optical density (OD) increased (p < 0.05) when wavelength and the concentration of crystalline SiO2 NPs increased. So, the maximum OD at 10 and 100 mM were attributed to crystalline SiO2 NPs (p < 0.05) due to the functional group, whereas it was related to amorphous at 1 mM (p > 0.05). According to polynomial regression modeling (PRM), the maximum interference effect was predicted at crystalline SiO2 NPs and wavelength > 550 nm. Besides, the synergistic effects of SiO2 NPs, wavelength, and concentration of NPs had been a good fitting with first-order PRM. Thus, the concentration of SiO2 NPs had a confounder factor in colorimetric for MTT assay. The best artificial neural network (ANN) structure was related to the 3:7:1 network (Rall = 0.936, MSE = 0.0006, MAPE = 0.063). The correlation between the actual and predicted data was 0.88. As SiO2 NPs presence is an interfering factor in MTT assay concerning wavelength, it is suggested wavelength use with minimum confounding effect for MTT assay.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-74
Author(s):  
Lenny Anwar

Pentacyclic triterpenoid, betulinic acid (1) and phenolic, p-hydroxybenzoic acid (2), had been isolated for the first time from the stem bark of Vitex pubescens Vahl. The structure of compounds 1 and 2 was determined based on the interpretation of spectroscopic data including UV, IR, NMR (1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HMQC, HMBC, COSY) and MS, as well as by comparison with those reported data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
Alexey Starodubtsev ◽  
◽  
Mikhail Allakhverdov

The most common ways researchers explain the Stroop effect are either through semantic or through response conflict. According to the literature, there are several methods capable of disentangling these conflicts: to use words outside of the response set, to use associatively related colors and words, or to use a “2:1” paradigm (requiring the same response for two types of stimuli). However, we believe that these methods cannot entirely differentiate semantic and response conflicts. We propose the following alternative method: when naming the color of a printed word (e.g., red, yellow, etc.) in the Stroop test, participants were asked to use different color names for some colors. For example, the red-colored stimuli had to be named by the word “yellow”. This approach allowed us to create semantically congruent stimuli, but with the conflict at the response level (the word red appears in red, but the participants have to say “yellow” because of the rule). Some stimuli remain congruent at the response level, but with the conflict at the semantic level (the word yellow appears in red, and the participants have to say “yellow” because of the rule). The results showed that semantically congruent stimuli do not produce the Stroop effect even if the meaning of the word corresponds to an incorrect response. In turn, congruence at the response level reduces the interference effect, but interference remains significant. Thus, the response conflict affects the magnitude of the Stroop effect only when there is a semantic conflict. Our data do not correspond to models that assume direct activation of responses corresponding to word meaning


Kavkaz-forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Л.Б. ДЗАПАРОВА

Проблемы теории и практики художественного перевода как феномена межкультурной коммуникации в наше время актуализируются в современной филологической науке. Расширяется исследовательское поле в этой области научного знания для переводоведов и всех, кто интересуется проблемами диалога культур. Выбор темы исследования обусловлен и прошедшим в этом году 95-летим юбилеем известного осетинского поэта, драматурга, литературоведа Нафи Григорьевича Джусойты. В статье рассматривается вклад народного писателя Осетии в теоретическое осмысление проблем художественного перевода; впер­вые анализируется одно из самых сложных для перевода стихотворений А.С. Пушкина «Пророк» в интерпретации Н. Джусойты. В частности, автором в статье представлен анализ опубликованных Джусойты на страницах центральных литературных журналов дискуссионных работ по наиболее актуальным проблемам переводоведения. В них Джусойты фокусирует внимание на вопросах верности перевода оригиналу, повышения качества подстрочников, новаторства и модер­низации классических произведений; обуславливает важность переводческого чтения в процессе постижения оригинала; определяет специфику поэтического перевода; выступает против украшательства в переводе, демонстрации на всесоюзном уровне слабых оригиналов и несовершенных переводов. В целом, Джусойты, полемизируя с известными теоретиками, предлагает свою концепцию перевода, начиная от выбора произведения и до конечного результата – текста на другом языке. Перед нами круг проблем, которые до сих пор волнуют специалистов по художественно­му переводу. Автором статьи также представлен сравнительно-сопоставительный анализ стихотворения А. Пушкина в оригинале и в переводческой интерпретации Н.Г. Джусойты. Сличение текстов на смысловом уровне показало стремление Джусойты найти художественные средства, которые помогают раскрыть основной образ. Но не везде раскрыт двуплановый смысл, запечатленный в лексических единицах исходного языка. The problems of the theory and practice of literary translation as a phenomenon of intercultural communication are still actualized in modern philological science. The research field in this area of scientific knowledge is expanding for translators and those interested in the problems of the dialogue of cultures. The choice of the research topic was also conditioned by the 95th anniversary of the famous Ossetian poet, playwright, literary critic Nafi Grigorievich Jusoyty, celebrated this year. The article examines the contribution of the people’s writer of Ossetia to the theoretical understanding of the problems of literary translation; for the first time one of the most difficult poems for translation by A.S. Pushkin’s «Prophet» in the interpretation of N. Jusoyty is reviewed. In particular, the author in the article presents an analysis of the discussion papers published by Jusoyty on the pages of central literary journals on the most pressing problems of translation studies. In them, Jusoyty focuses on the issues of closeness to the original, improving the quality of interlinear translations, innovation and modernization of classical works; determines the importance of translation reading in the process of comprehending the original; determines the specifics of poetic translation; opposes embellishment in translation, the demonstration of weak originals and imperfect translations at the all-Union level. In general, Jusoyty, arguing with well-known theorists, offers his own concept of translation, starting from the choice of a work and up to the final result – a text in another language. We are faced with a range of problems that still concern specialists in literary translation. The author of the article also presents a comparative analysis of A. Pushkin’s poem in the original and in t/he translation interpretation of N.G. Jusoyty. Comparison of the texts at the semantic level showed Jusoyty’s desire to find close artistic means that help to reveal the main image. But not everywhere is disclosed the two-dimensional meaning embodied in the lexical units of the source language.


Author(s):  
Nabil Hasshim ◽  
Michelle Downes ◽  
Sarah Bate ◽  
Benjamin A. Parris

Abstract. Previous analyses of response time distributions have shown that the Stroop effect is observed in the mode (μ) and standard deviation (σ) of the normal part of the distribution, as well as its tail (τ). Specifically, interference related to semantic and response processes has been suggested to specifically affect the mode and tail, respectively. However, only one study in the literature has directly manipulated semantic interference, and none manipulating response interference. The present research aims to address this gap by manipulating both semantic and response interference in a manual response Stroop task, and examining how these components of Stroop interference affect the response time distribution. Ex-Gaussian analysis showed both semantic and response conflict to only affect τ. Analyzing the distribution by rank-ordered response times (Vincentizing) showed converging results as the magnitude of both semantic and response conflict increased with slower response times. Additionally, response conflict appeared earlier on the distribution compared to semantic conflict. These findings further highlight the difficulty in attributing specific psychological processes to different parameters (i.e., μ, σ, and τ). The effect of different response modalities on the makeup of Stroop interference is also discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document