The Stroop Effect Experiment: The Stroop Effect

The Stroop Effect Experiment In 1935, John Ridley Stroop conducted the original experiments of the stroop effect. The stroop effect is an effect that occurs when individuals attempt to name the color of words that spell out a conflicting color. Stroop reported an interference effect when individuals were asked to report the color of words presented to them. Stroop collected his data by showing his participants a sheet of paper with printed words on it. He then asked his participant’s to name the colors they saw aloud and he recorded the data. The overall objective of the experiment was to obtain the stroop effect and identify the interference associated with it. Stroop performed three different types of experiments. In experiment one, Stroop
The tests used in this experiment were similar in character to the tests used in experiments one and two but includes some revision. Experiment three includes a new variation in the NC test with the presence of swastikas instead of squares. According to Stroop (1935), “Such a modification allowed white to appear in the figure with the color, as is the case when the color is presented in the printed word. This change also made it possible to print the NC test in shades which more nearly match those in the NCWd test” (p. 10). The RCNb, RCNd, NC, and NCWd tests were administered to participants over a 14-day period in order to attempt to measure the interference developed by practice. Stroop addressed the issue of a potential practice effect and then according to Stroop (1935), “All but two subjects followed the schedule with very little irregularity. These two were finally dropped from the group and their data rejected” (p.
In experiment one, participants were presented with words printed in the colors blue, green, yellow, red and purple. It is important to note that Stroop used the colors: red, green, blue, brown, and purple in his original experiment. However, ePsych uses the different colors because blue and brown would both require the letter “b” to be clicked on the keyboard. Some of the words presented were random or considered neutral and had no correlation with the corresponding color (ex: “lovely” or “fresh”), while other words presented were the name of a different or conflicting color. Participants were asked to use the keyboard to click the first letter that indicated the color of the word displayed on the screen as quickly and as accurately as possible. Participants completed a practice trial experiment before moving on to the full trial experiment. The practice trial consisted of two blocks with 10 trials in each block. Upon completion of this, participants moved on to the full trials which consisted of four blocks with 50 trials in each block. The stroop effect occurred when participants attempted to name the color of a word that spelled out a conflicting color. Given the previous statement, it was expected that participants would have slower reaction times to the conflicting words that read color names that did not correspond to the color the word was printed in. Therefore, there