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Introduction

Contents Page TITLE: PAGE NO: Abstract ..........................................................................................................................................................2 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................3 Hypotheses......................................................................................................................................................4 Methodology....................................................................................................................................................5 Results.............................................................................................................................................................6 Discussion.......................................................................................................................................................7 Bibliography.....................................................................................................................................................8 Appendix.......................................................................................................................................................9-12 ABSTRACT This research aimed to investigate the stroop effect, and to see the interference stroop has in the reaction time of a task. An opportunity sample of 20 people (10 males and 10 females aged between 16 and 60) were chosen to complete the stroop test where they had to read a set of (experimental and control) coloured words. It was expected that the experimental list of words would take longer to complete. The results showed that experimental list of words took a significantly longer time to complete. The calculated related T test found the T value= 9.52 which exceeded the critical value of 1.729 at p<0.05% which means the results are significant. INTRODUCTION The Stroop effect is an area of cognitive psychology. It is a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task. When a word such as blue, green, red, etc. is printed in a color differing from the words semantic meaning (e.g. the word "red" printed in blue ink), a delay occurs in the identifying the words color leading to an increase in mistakes. Ridley Stroop administered several variations of two main tests. Stroop referred to his tests as RCN, to stand for "Reading Color Names", where participants were required to repeat the written meaning of words with differing colored fonts, and NCW, to stand for "Naming Colored Words", in which participants were asked to orally identify the color of each printed color name. ...read more.

Middle

PROCEDURE: Participants were approached throughout Monday 23rd June 2008, in the Sixth Form Block at School. They were asked to take part in an investigation experimenting the stroop effect (Appendix F). Upon agreeing to participate, they were taken to an empty room where they were given a briefing (Appendix G). They were also informed that the experiment was anonymous (Appendix H). They were then given the (experimental) list of words (Appendix I). The time taken to do this was measured and recorded. The participant was then given the second (control) list of words (Appendix J). Again the time taken to do this was measured and then recorded. Once both sets of words were completed they were debriefed (Appendix K). CONTROLS: > Same room > Same experiment > Standardised approach to get participants > Standardised consent > Standardised instructions > Same list of words (One experimental and one control) > Same researcher/experimenter > Experiment carried out in the same manner > Standardised briefing/debriefing . ETHICS: Once consent was given, the right to withdraw was emphasized, and they were also told they could withdraw their results. As they were in an empty room, there was no embarrassment and the results were kept confidential. The participants were briefed and debriefed and any questions they had were answered. DATA ANALYSIS: The data will be analysed using a related T test as the experiment was a repeated measures design and there was interval level data. ...read more.

Conclusion

This weakness could be overcome by repeating the experiment in other colleges around the country. Another weakness was that many participants wasted time (Appendix P). This may have been as they were not aware of the fact that they were being timed to see how long it took to complete the test. A way to overcome this problem is that before the participant starts the test, you could include in their briefing that they will be timed to see how long they take to complete the test or ask them not to speak until after they have terminated the test. An additional weakness is that the participants took part in both of the two conditions, with means they could not avoid and order effects which may occur. But to overcome this problem, the experimental condition was given first, and the participants were not told of the two different conditions, and were not told that the control words were the same as the colours. IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATION In the experiment carried out by J.R.Stroop, he identified a large increase on the time taken by participants to complete the NCW (naming coloured words). This is what I have found in my own study. The experimental words took longer to complete then the control list of words. This has implications for the presentation of materials to people, as it will have to be well thought out before presented certain things to different people. It also has implications on individual differences. For example people playing on 'brain training' type games. Some people will find this easier, but the majority will take more time. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level Cognitive Psychology section.