The Stroop Effect

Interference is understood as a stimulus that hinders one’s ability to reach a desired conclusion or response. Interference’s effect was the main source of study behind the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935). The origins of the Stroop task came from the titular researcher determining to what end can contrasting stimuli, in this case the name of a color and the color of ink used for that word, interfere with one another (Stroop, 1935). This interference was due to automaticity (Stroop, 1935). Automaticity is the cognitive function of reacting to a stimulus so quickly due to the small amount of effort required. In this case, automaticity makes an individual read a word prior to recognizing the color of the word’s ink (Stroop, 1935). Reaction times are
Stroop tasks assist in studies attempting to determine how effective certain strategies are for cognitive rehabilitation. In this instance, failure in the Stroop task is used as a means of preliminary acceptance for participants (De Giglio et al., 2014). De Giglio et al. (2014) wanted to determine how effective a particular video game could aid individuals suffering from multiple sclerosis in cognitive rehabilitation. The belief among the research team was that this form of home-based cognitive rehabilitation through the use of the video game Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training would be a beneficial form of therapy (De Giglio et al., 2014). The subjects were Italians suffering from multiple sclerosis who also needed to have failed one of several different types of tests (one of which being the Stroop task) (De Giglio et al., 2014). The participants were then taught how to play the video game and were given a lengthy period of time to play (De Giglio et al., 2014). The experiment’s results were that the video game improved participants’ ability to process information quickly compared to no gameplay at all (De Giglio et al., 2014). It is incredible that playing Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training can be a low-cost effective strategy in aiding individuals suffering from multiple sclerosis (De Giglio et al.,
(2017) used the Stroop task as a way to determine the effectiveness of non-action cognitive video games on reversing or delaying cognitive decline. The group hypothesized that a group of older individuals would exhibit greater improvement in executive function when trained with cognitive non-action video games compared to a control group (Ballesteros et al., 2017). The experiment was conducted with a group of older Spanish adults who were separated into one of two groups: those trained on the non-action cognitive video games and those in the control group trained on simulation games (Ballesteros et al., 2017). Prior to practicing and playing those games, participants were asked to take several different types of cognitive tasks including the Stroop task, which tested the automatic and top-down processing of the participants (Ballesteros et al., 2017). After practicing on their assigned games, each group was retested on the cognitive tasks as well as some new tasks which resulted in modest improvements for the experimental group (Ballesteros et al., 2017). With the proper training on cognitively designed video games, there can be improvement on cognitive function tasks such as the Stroop