scholarly journals Is Your Color My Color? Dividing the Labor of the Stroop Task between Co-actors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Motonori Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Task Representation ◽  
Joint Task ◽  
Distractor Color ◽  
Task Representations ◽  
Clear Support

Performing a task with other actors involves two opposing forces, division of labor between co-acting individuals and integration of divided parts of the task into a shared mental representation (co-representation). Previous studies have focused primarily on the integration of task representations and limited attention has paid to the division of labor. The present study devised a new test of the integration and the division in a joint task setting. A joint version of the Stroop task was developed, in which pairs of actors were assigned different sets of target colors. If the actors integrate their co-actor’s task, the colors assigned to their co-actor should be represented as if they were the actor’s own target colors; the Stroop effect should be as large when distractor color words denote their co-actor’s target colors as when these words denote the actor’s own target colors. If the actors divide the labor of the Stroop task, the colors assigned to their partner should be represented as non-target colors; the Stroop effect should be smaller when the distractor color words denote the co-actor’s target colors than when these words denote the actor’s own target colors. The results of response time did not provide clear support for either position, while those of response accuracy supported the division of labor. Possible cognitive mechanisms that support the division of labor and the integration of task representation are discussed.

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.

scholarly journals Focused learning promotes continual task performance in humans

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Flesch ◽  
Jan Balaguer ◽  
Ronald Dekker ◽  
Hamed Nili ◽  
Christopher Summerfield
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Mutual Interference ◽  
Task Space ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Analysis Of Error ◽  
Task Representations ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Continual Learning

AbstractHumans can learn to perform multiple tasks in succession over the lifespan (“continual” learning), whereas current machine learning systems fail. Here, we investigated the cognitive mechanisms that permit successful continual learning in humans. Unlike neural networks, humans that were trained on temporally autocorrelated task objectives (focussed training) learned to perform new tasks more effectively, and performed better on a later test involving randomly interleaved tasks. Analysis of error patterns suggested that focussed learning permitted the formation of factorised task representations that were protected from mutual interference. Furthermore, individuals with a strong prior tendency to represent the task space in a factorised manner enjoyed greater benefit of focussed over interleaved training. Building artificial agents that learn to factorise tasks appropriately may be a promising route to solving continual task performance in machine learning.Significance StatementHumans learn to perform many different tasks over the lifespan, such as speaking both French and Spanish. The brain has to represent task information without mutual interference. In machine learning, this "continual learning" is a major unsolved challenge. Here, we studied the patterns of errors made by humans and state-of-the-art deep networks whilst they learned new tasks from scratch and without instruction. Humans, but not machines, seem to benefit from training regimes that focussed on one task at a time, especially when they had a prior bias to represent stimuli in a way that facilitated task separation. Machines trained to exhibit the same prior bias suffered less interference between tasks, suggesting new avenues for solving continual learning in artificial systems.

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.

Individual and joint task representations

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lincoln Colling ◽  
Natalie Sebanz
Keyword(s):  
Joint Task ◽  
Task Representations

Joint Task Representations

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Sebanz ◽  
Jessica Chia Chin Tsai ◽  
Gunther Knoblich
Keyword(s):  
Joint Task ◽  
Task Representations

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.

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