The Stroop Effect is a cognitive psychology phenomenon that demonstrates an interference in the response time due to changes in the reaction time when handling a task. The phenomenon was named after John Stroop, an American psychologist who had interests in exposing interferences in verbal reactions in three of his studies. The effect is related to selective attention which is demonstrated by the ability to respond to an environmental stimulus while ignoring another. This paper studies the effect concept and explains its occurrence.
Interacting with the world requires an understanding of its different entities. Visual processing is a primary method of understanding and comprehending the meaning of physical attributes of things seen. Some information about things seen gets processed automatically before the individual gets aware. The automatic processing gives the brain functions an insight. The individual experiencing the Stroop effect may maintain a uniform solution plan independent of interference and intrusion stimulus (Comalli Jr, Wapner and Werner 47). The Stroop test is done to evaluate the experience in an individual.
The brain processes information that seems conflicting differently from that which seems straightforward. A typical example is a difference observed when one reads the word ‘red’ written in a red color and when written in a green color. The reader processes the color more quickly when the word reads the exact color than when red is written in green requiring cognition of the color alone. Such interferences have a significant impact on the steps through which the brain completes tasks and processes information (Frings, Englert and Wentura 47).
Based on the color Stroop tests, it is clear that the brain reads and comprehends the with little or no efforts. Declaration of the color depicted by an image or the font color of the word requires extra cognition efforts (Comalli Jr, Wapner and Werner 51). The Stroop effect occurs as a result of the conflict between the cognition input and the reading with the eyes. The cognitive load gets increased requiring more efforts by the brain to resolve the differences. The simultaneous occurrence of these tasks that require resolving the information and processing the different colors of the words slows down the response significantly (Frings, Englert and Wentura 45). The slow response is evident when the task takes longer than expected.
The Stroop effect gets used as a paradigm to assess the cognitive processing speed of an individual. The executive function of the brain involving cognitive control and attentional capacity and the interaction with the world can be assessed through the paradigm. The facets and skills are implicit in their suggestions on the incisive view of human behavior and thoughts from the test (Hutchison 851). The anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain are actively involved when processing the Stroop task through catching errors and resolving conflicts.
Conclusion
The Stroop effect is widely used in the process of creating psychological tests that measure the capacity, processing speed, and skills of an individual. Some neuropsychological assessments also depend on the Stroop effect when examining the individual’s ability in executive processing. The Stroop test is an established methodology for revealing cognitive processes and different functions of the brain. Different psychologists have modified the phenomenon to fit the needs for use in the study of bilingualism effects through the inclusion of extra variables and sensory modalities.
References
Comalli Jr, Peter E., Seymour Wapner and Heinz Werner. “Interference effects of Stroop color-word test in childhood, adulthood, and aging.” The Journal of genetic psychology 100.1 (1962): 47-53.
Frings, Christian, et al. “Decomposing the emotional Stroop effect.” The quarterly journal of experimental psychology 63.1 (2010): 42-49.
Hutchison, K. A. “The interactive effects of listwide control, item-based control, and working memory capacity on Stroop performance.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 37.4 (2011): 851.
