Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong Community College

CCN2187 Biological Psychology

Group 202B

Lecturer: Dr. On Ting Lo

Review the potential explanations of a kind of

visual illusions-Stroop Effect.

Student Name: Chow Wing Yin

 Student ID: 13053504A

Date: 8-4-2015

Introduction
The Stroop effect is a demonstration of the phenomenon that reaction time of the
brain slows down when it has to deal with conflicting information. This slowed
reaction time happens because of interference, or a processing delay due to competing
or incompatible functions in the brain. The effect became well-known after John
Ridley Stroop, a psychologist, published his study describing this effect in 1935
(MacLeod, 1991). After Stroop demonstrated the color-word Stroop task, there is lots
of researcher use this effect for further studies and it provided a stable result of
measurement, thereby it became the Gold Standard of attentional measurement
(MacLeod, 1992). Since this effect was used for a widely research tool, there are
several theories for explaining the Stroop effect. And in this paper, it will focus on the
color naming task in Stroop task.
Stroop Task
Stroop Task included three stimuli which were congruent color words, incongruent
color words and neutral words. For instance, congruent stimulus is that the word
blue printed in blue ink while the incongruent stimulus is that the word red
printed in green ink. Color naming task is that the participants were required to name
the color in which the words are printed while ignoring their verbal content.
In this task, researcher records how long it takes a participant to say the name of a
color printed in black ink. Moreover, participant would see the word blue printed
and then say blue. The researcher then shows the participant color names printed in
another color, such as the word red printed in green ink, and researcher records how
long it takes the participant to say the color that the word is printed in.
There is a significant phenomenon in the task, it has been shown that when the
participant names the color of the incongruent color words, it takes much longer for
the participant to name the color of the word and is more likely to make mistakes than
the congruent color words (Stroop, 1935).
Explanation
In the color naming task, participants must try to ignore those verbal contents of the
incongruent color words if they want to report the color correctly. However, it is not
easy. When we attempt to name the color of incongruent color words, we will tend to
speak out the content of the words, and interference occurs between reading and
color naming (Wong, 2010).
Stroop (1935) has mentioned that the word stimulus has been associated with the
specific response to read, while the color stimulus has been associated with various
responses: to admire, to name, to reach for, to avoid. Based on this statement, it
seems to imply that the response to word stimulus is a process without thinking while
the response to color stimulus requires more cognition. Therefore, we can interpret
that we are more familiar with words; even it is related to automaticity.
Automaticity Hypothesis is one of the theories to explain the Stroop effect. There are
three modes of automaticity which are mode of operation, mode of control and mode
of representation. Mode of operation is that the operation of automatic process is
isolated, and would not interfere by other component. Mode of control is that the
automatic process was elicited by stimulus, not turned on by the planning or will.
Mode of representation is that the automatic process can be processed without
cognition or perception (Newman, 1984).
Compare with naming color, we have more practice on reading the words,
understanding the meaning, therefore reading become an automatic response and
stronger path. Meaning of the words was automated by reading. In other word, people
see the meaning of words without much attention. And naming the color requires
more attention to recognize the color. Thus, it matches with the mode of operation, the
automatic process of reading would not affect by color.
The word of Incongruent color words will elicit the response of reading
automatically. Response of reading the word cannot control by our consciousness,
thus creating interference that affect the reaction time (delayed) for naming the right
color in the incongruent color words. It also match with the mode of control, the
automatic process of naming word was activated by the word of incongruent color
words(stimulus), it interferes the capacity of naming color, which is less practice and
need more attention.
 Consequently, reading is an automatic process, which cannot be turned off. Our brain
automatically understands the meaning of words through a long-time habit of reading
and recognizes the words without effort, but recognizing colors is not an automatic
process. When the brain has to name the color, rather than the meaning of the word in
the Stroop task, it has to override its initial impulse of automatically reading the word
so that it can recognize its color. Hence, we take more time to name the color.
Furthermore, practice is the factor that affects the automaticity hypothesis
(MacLeod, 1991). For instance, when we do the stroop test with a new language
(Japanese), we would not much slower and would not likely to make mistakes during
the color naming task. The reason is that the new language is unfamiliar to us, so we
have no experience about practice on reading others language. Based on that, the
brain cannot automatically understand the meaning of it, and reading is not an
automatic process under the unfamiliar language. Therefore, we can name the color of
the incongruent color words (Japanese) easily.

Conclusion