Fun Facts
What causes Stroop Effect ?
What this reveals is that the brain can’t help but read. As habitual readers, we encounter and comprehend words on such a persistent basis that the reading occurs almost effortlessly, whereas declaration of a color requires more cognitive effort. When there is a conflict between these two sources of information, our cognitive load is increased, and our brains have to work harder to resolve the required difference. Performing these tasks (preventing reading, processing word color, and resolving information conflict) ultimately slows down our responses, and makes the task take longer.
There are a few theories that slightly differ in their definitions of the Stroop Effect, yet their differences mostly lie in which part that they emphasize. For example, one theory emphasizes that the automaticity of reading as the principal cause of Stroop interference, while another emphasizes the mental prioritizing which we perform when reading, as compared to defining colors. While differences in theories may therefore exist, all essentially converge on the central premise that reading is a simpler and more automatic task than stating colors, and that a conflict between the two will increase the time needed for processing.
Participants spent almost 36% less time reading the CONGRUENT words as compared to INCONGRUENT words.
This test would have been more fun if the word were given are all INCONGRUENT but the two test groups are males and female only. This would result in finding if both males and females took same time or they took different times. Probably a 2 tailed Hypothesis test between their mean scores would be helpful.
See if this effect is still this effective if there are no words but only digits.
How effective this test would be if we take all children who can read the words but can not relate these with colors!
A peep into
this page reveals that some other alternatives of the stroop test like using non color words or using emotional words.
One final thing that could be really interesting is that mixing CONGRUENT and INCONGRUENT words and how participants quickly switch their attention. This can be used to test the learning reflex of the them.
I wonder how stroop test works out for color blind people