The Stroop Effect on the Automatic Processing of Information.

Running head: THE STROOP EFFECT ON THE AUTOMATIC PROCESSING OF INFORMATION.

Automatic Processing Of Information Resulting In Difficulties In Processing Information And Paying

Attention Attributing To The Stroop Effect.

Abstract

The research was based on a theory of interference on automatic processing first proposed by Stroop (1935). The Stroop effect of the time taken in colour-word task naming and the naming of nonsense words was compared and investigated. Two tests were presented to 10 adult participants between the ages or 20 and 52. The participants were asked to read aloud a list of colour name words and a list of nonsense words both printed in different coloured ink. The response time for each task was recorded. It was hypothesised that it would take longer to read the colour name words than the nonsense words. This hypothesis was supported by the results in that automatic processing of information was effected by interference and attention to the learned meanings that are attached to words are hard to ignore.

The Stroop effect is of interest to psychologists conducting research into cognitive thought processing ability (Kim, Cho, Yamaguchi, Proctor, 2008). Attention to information that is irrelevant for task performance is found to be automatically processed and performance is seen to be effected (Kim, Cho, Yamaguchi, Proctor, 2008).

The Stroop effect refers to the interference of the automatic processing of information. The Stroop Colour -Word Task is the examination of this interference and was designed to measure and compare the time it takes to process information automatically (MacLeod, 1991). The emphasis of the experiment is on the measurement of the interference in the automatic naming of a colour and is measured by the amount of time taken for the colour of words to be named when printed in different coloured ink, compared to the naming of the colour of nonsense...