The Stroop Effect

The Stroop effect is a psychological occurrence first described by John Ridley Stroop in the 1935. The Stroop effect had been fascinating psychologists because it appears to tap into essential operations of cognition, thereby offering clues to fundamental cognitive processes. There were two great experiments made , Stroop first compared reading a list of words printed in black with reading the same list of words printed in incongruent colors. Stroop found that there was little difference in reading time for the two lists. Stroop then compared the naming of colors for a list of solid color squares with the naming of colors for a list of words printed in incongruent colors. Its 74% longer to name color ink of incongruent words. The results of this two studies is that people are used to read word rather than identify colors.

The Stroop Effect test consists : 1. A person is handed a list of words matching the colors the words are describing . 2. You are asked to name the color of the ink used on each word . 3. They are timed for this first test 4. The colors of the words change place , they didn’t match anymore 5. You are asked to name the color on the word 6. You get timed for the second test

Stroop found out that practice made the time in which the task was being done decrease. That naming colors result much slower than reading them. 

You stumble because the brain is trying to pay attention to more than one thing . The brain tries to read and visualize what color or word it is so its confusing . That’s why the second test , were the words didn’t match was harder .

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