The importance of the Stroop effect is that it appears to cast light into the essential operations of cognition, thereby offering clues to fundamental cognitive processes and their neuro-cognitive architecture. Stroop effect is also utilized to investigate various psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Stroop facilitation effects are assessed as differences in RTs between congruent and neutral trials. Therefore, one way of reducing Stroop interference effects (or enhancing Stroop facilitation effects) would be to respond more slowly on neutral trials, while responding optimally on other trials.

With respect to the Stroop effect, it is likely that several factors are involved, including non-specific performance effects of practice (e.g., stimulus encoding, response execution, & color name facility) that impact both control as well as interference conditions.

The Stroop effect is assessed by calculating the difference in performance between trials in which the stimulus dimen- sions correspond (congruent trials) and trials in which the dimensions conflict (incongruent trials). The same Stroop calculation applies to the baseline con- dition.

The Stroop effect occurred in both age groups, with longer reaction times in the older group than in the young group for both types of stimuli, but no difference in the number of errors made by either group.

No significant interaction between gender and Stroop task type was found. These results suggest that the female advantage on the Stroop task is not due to women expressing superior inhibition abilities compared to men. Instead, it is likely that women possess better verbal abilities and can name the ink colours faster.

One of the explanations for the difficulty is that we are so used to processing word meaning while ignoring the physical features of words, that it is a learned response. The Stroop task requires us to do something which we have never learned and which is opposite what we normally do.

The Stroop task has consistently been associated with a large fronto-parietal network, typically involving the ACC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), inferior frontal gyrus, inferior and superior parietal cortex and insula [20]–[22].

Performing Your Own Experiment Black would be written in black, blue written in blue, etc. Then, have another group say the colors of words that differ from their written meaning. Finally, ask a third group of participants to say the colors of random words that don’t relate to colors. Then, compare your results.

Stroop called this effect semantic interference. Because reading is so automatic, the brain immediately leaps in to think of the color red when presented with the word “red.” It then has to quickly correct itself and deliberately focus attention on the color instead, a task much less automated.

Selective attention refers to the ability to pay attention to a limited array of all available sensory information. Selective attention, as a filter to help prioritize information according to its importance, is adaptive. If attention is too selective, however, it is maladaptive.

In the Stroop task, participants name the color of the ink that a color word is written in and ignore the meaning of the word. Here participants were primed with the social concept “dyslexia” before performing the Stroop task.

In this experiment you are required to say the color of the word, not what the word says. For example, for the word, RED, you should say “Blue.” As soon as the words appear on your screen, read the list as fast as you can. When you have finished, click on the “Finish” button.

The standard Stroop Test (Stroop, 1935) consists of color words printed in different colors of ink. Initially, the time taken for participants to read all of the color names is measured. Then participants are asked to name the color of ink that each word is printed in.

One measure of executive function is the Stroop Interference Test, originally developed in 1935 by Stroop to measure selective attention and cognitive flexibility.