scholarly journals Semantic Conflict and Response Conflict in the Stroop Task

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
Alexey Starodubtsev ◽  
◽  
Mikhail Allakhverdov
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Incorrect Response ◽  
Response Conflict ◽  
Response Level ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
Semantic Conflict ◽  
Response Set ◽  
Different Color ◽  
Printed Word

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

scholarly journals Intermodal Priming of Cognitive Conflict? A Failed Replication of Mager et al. (2009)

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Wiswede ◽  
Jascha Rüsseler
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Matching Condition ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Original Study ◽  
Response Conflict ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Task Instruction ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Conflict Task

Introduction: The present study was conducted to verify a promising experimental setup which demonstrated an inversed Stroop-effect (much faster responses for incongruent relative to congruent Stroop trials) following a mismatching tone. In the matching condition, which was an almost exact replication of the original study, participants were required to indicate whether word color and word meaning were matching, whereas in the response conflict condition, instruction was the same as in a classical Stroop task and required the participants to respond to the word color. As in the original study, each trial was preceded by a sine tone which was deviant in pitch in 20% of the trials.Results: The main result was that the Stroop effect was not inversed after deviant tones, neither under the matching task instruction nor under the response conflict task instruction. The Stroop effect was unaffected by the previous “conceptual mismatch.”Conclusion: The current study failed to replicate the astonishing concept of “conflict priming” reported in previous work and does not open the doors for a new window on sequences of conflicts. Nevertheless, the failed replication is valuable for future research, since it demonstrated that “Conflict Priming” as a facilitation of processing of conflict trials following deviant tones, is not an confirmed finding.

scholarly journals Time for Action: Neural Basis of the Costs and Benefits of Temporal Predictability for Competing Response Choices

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Inga Korolczuk ◽  
Boris Burle ◽  
Jennifer T. Coull ◽  
Kamila Śmigasiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Incorrect Response ◽  
Response Conflict ◽  
Cortical Inhibition ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Response Hand ◽  
Temporal Predictability ◽  
Choice Complexity

Abstract The brain can anticipate the time of imminent events to optimize sensorimotor processing. Yet, there can be behavioral costs of temporal predictability under situations of response conflict. Here, we sought to identify the neural basis of these costs and benefits by examining motor control processes in a combined electroencephalography–EMG study. We recorded electrophysiological markers of response activation and inhibition over motor cortex when the onset-time of visual targets could be predicted, or not, and when responses necessitated conflict resolution, or not. If stimuli were temporally predictable but evoked conflicting responses, we observed increased intertrial consistency in the delta range over the motor cortex involved in response implementation, perhaps reflecting increased response difficulty. More importantly, temporal predictability differentially modulated motor cortex activity as a function of response conflict before the response was even initiated. This effect occurred in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the response, which is involved in inhibiting unwanted actions. If target features all triggered the same response, temporal predictability increased cortical inhibition of the incorrect response hand. Conversely, if different target features triggered two conflicting responses, temporal predictability decreased inhibition of the incorrect, yet prepotent, response. This dissociation reconciles the well-established behavioral benefits of temporal predictability for nonconflicting responses as well as its costs for conflicting ones by providing an elegant mechanism that operates selectively over the motor cortex involved in suppressing inappropriate actions just before response initiation. Taken together, our results demonstrate that temporal information differentially guides motor activity depending on response choice complexity.

The Acquisition of Color Words

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Wagner ◽  
David Barner
Keyword(s):  
Color Word ◽  
Inductive Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Electromagnetic Spectrum ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Word Acquisition ◽  
Color Categories ◽  
Word Boundaries ◽  
Different Color

Human experience of color results from a complex interplay of perceptual and linguistic systems. At the lowest level of perception, the human visual system transforms the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum into a rich, continuous three-dimensional experience of color. Despite our ability to perceptually discriminate millions of different color shades, most languages categorize color into a number of discrete color categories. While the meanings of color words are constrained by perception, perception does not fully define them. Once color words are acquired, they may in turn influence our memory and processing speed for color, although it is unlikely that language influences the lowest levels of color perception. One approach to examining the relationship between perception and language in forming our experience of color is to study children as they acquire color language. Children produce color words in speech for many months before acquiring adult meanings for color words. Research in this area has focused on whether children’s difficulties stem from (a) an inability to identify color properties as a likely candidate for word meanings, or alternatively (b) inductive learning of language-specific color word boundaries. Lending plausibility to the first account, there is evidence that children more readily attend to object traits like shape, rather than color, as likely candidates for word meanings. However, recent evidence has found that children have meanings for some color words before they begin to produce them in speech, indicating that in fact, they may be able to successfully identify color as a candidate for word meaning early in the color word learning process. There is also evidence that prelinguistic infants, like adults, perceive color categorically. While these perceptual categories likely constrain the meanings that children consider, they cannot fully define color word meanings because languages vary in both the number and location of color word boundaries. Recent evidence suggests that the delay in color word acquisition primarily stems from an inductive process of refining these boundaries.

ERP Evidence of a Stroop-Like Effect in Emotional Speech Related to Social Anhedonia

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
Paul Roux ◽  
Damien Vistoli ◽  
Anne Christophe ◽  
Christine Passerieux ◽  
Eric Brunet-Gouet
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
P300 Amplitude ◽  
Emotional Prosody ◽  
Social Anhedonia ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Response Level ◽  
The Social

The present study investigated the ERP correlates of the integration of emotional prosody to the emotional meaning of a spoken word. Thirty-four nonclinical participants listened to negative and positive words that were spoken with an angry or happy prosody and classified the emotional valence of the word meaning while ignoring emotional prosody. Social anhedonia was also self-rated by the subjects. Compared to congruent trials, incongruent ones elicited slower and less accurate behavioral responses, and a smaller P300 component at the brain response level. The present data suggest that vocal emotional information is salient enough to be integrated early in verbal processing. The P300 amplitude modulation by the prosody-meaning congruency positively correlated with the social anhedonia score, suggesting that the sensitivity of the electrical brain response to emotional prosody increased with social anhedonia. Interpretations of this result in terms of emotional processing in social anhedonia are discussed.

Separating Speed from Automaticity in a Patient with Focal Brain Atrophy

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Wingfield ◽  
Harold Goodglass ◽  
Kimberly C. Lindfield
Keyword(s):  
Processing Speed ◽  
Brain Atrophy ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Automatic Processes ◽  
Controlled Processes ◽  
Color Name ◽  
Automatic Reading ◽  
Different Color

Automatic processes are characterized as being rapid, as requiring little attentional effort, and as obligatory (once initiated, the activity cannot be inhibited or controlled) In contrast, controlled processes are slower, require attention, and are non-obligatory This distinction appears in the Stroop effect the interference that appears when a person tries to name the color of the ink in which a word is printed when the word spells the name of a different color This effect has historically been attributed to an automatic reading of the color name interfering with the slower, less automatic, naming of the ink color (MacLeod, 1991, Stroop, 1935) In this report, we describe a patient with focal brain atrophy whose speed of reading was no faster than his speed of naming colors, but who still showed the classic Stroop effect This finding critically challenges the traditional identification of automaticity with processing speed

scholarly journals Does morphological structure modulate access to embedded word meaning in child readers?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Hasenäcker ◽  
Olga Solaja ◽  
Davide Crepaldi
Keyword(s):  
Word Meaning ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
Developing Readers ◽  
Semantic Access ◽  
Morphological Processes

AbstractBeginning readers have been shown to be sensitive to the meaning of embedded neighbors (e.g., CROW in CROWN). Moreover, developing readers are sensitive to the morphological structure of words (TEACH-ER). However, the interaction between orthographic and morphological processes in meaning activation during reading is not well established. What determines semantic access to orthographically embedded words? What is the role of suffixes in this process? And how does this change throughout development? To address these questions, we asked 80 Italian elementary school children (third, fourth, and fifth grade) to make category decisions on words (e.g., is CARROT a type of food?). Critically, some target words for no-answers (e.g., is CORNER a type of food?) contained category-congruent embedded stems (i.e., CORN). To gauge the role of morphology in this process, half of the embedded stems were accompanied by a pseudosuffix (CORN-ER) and half by a non-morphological ending (PEA-CE). Results revealed that words were harder to reject as members of a category when the embedded stem was category-congruent. This effect held both with and without a pseudosuffix, but was larger for pseudosuffixed words in the error rates. These results suggest that orthographic stems are activated and activation is fed forward to the semantic level regardless of morphological structure, followed by a decision-making process that might strategically use suffix-like endings.

Is There Semantic Conflict in the Stroop Task?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Burca ◽  
Virginie Beaucousin ◽  
Pierre Chausse ◽  
Ludovic Ferrand ◽  
Benjamin A. Parris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stroop Task ◽  
Interference Effect ◽  
Response Competition ◽  
Stroop Interference ◽  
Single Letter ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
Competition Models ◽  
Semantic Conflict ◽  
Reported Data ◽  
First Time

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.

scholarly journals Cognitive Control and Bilingualism: The Bilingual Advantage Through the Lens of Dimensional Overlap

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melodie Bellegarda ◽  
Pedro Macizo
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Incorrect Response ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Response Level

Past research shows that the bilingual experience may enhance cognitive executive function. In this experiment, we evaluated cognitive control in bilinguals relative to monolinguals by using a dimensional overlap model to predict performance in a task composed of Stroop and Simon stimuli. A group of 24 Spanish monolinguals and 24 bilinguals with differing first languages and all having Spanish as a second language (L2) did a picture naming task and a task composed of Stroop and Simon stimuli, where the effect of different overlap conditions (spatial/color) between stimuli and responses were examined. The tasks were performed in Spanish for both groups and performance was indexed with behavioral and electrophysiological measures. We hypothesized that the bilinguals’ daily language practice in L2 reflected overlap conditions similar to the Simon task. Both naming a picture in L2 and the Simon task would involve conflict at the response level. L2 picture naming entails interference between two potential oral responses, to name in L2 vs. L1 (correct vs. incorrect responses, respectively). Similarly, incongruent stimuli in the Simon task produce interference because the irrelevant dimension (spatial location) overlap with an incorrect response. In contrast, the manual Stroop task involves a different type of conflict between two overlapping stimulus dimensions (the ink color and the color meaning). We predicted for these reasons a superior performance in Simon tasks over Stroop tasks for bilinguals, while monolinguals were expected to have a similar performance in both tasks. We also expected to see a correlation between the performance on the picture naming task and the Simon task in bilinguals. However, the behavioral results did not confirm these hypotheses. In fact, both groups had similar congruency effects as measured by reaction times and error rates, and there was no correlation between the picture naming and Simon task in bilinguals. Despite this, the electrophysiological data suggested a relationship between the picture naming task and the P300 congruency effect in bilinguals. Our findings provide insights into the neurocognitive bases of language and serve as a research avenue for language behaviors in bilinguals.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document