Introduction
There is a necessity for everyone to understand the world to interact and see it. Currently, humans can use visual processing to interact and see the world clearly, especially since people who can see an object will try to understand and relate to the meaning behind such an object. This means that there are data or information that people process even without realizing that they are processing such data (Parris et al., 2021). For instance, when we see a tree, we understand that chairs come from the tree people can sit on. Therefore, in the early 90s, John Ridley Stroop, before instructing individuals to read words from a paper, knew that associations are pervasive and powerful and human beings’ automatic processing will describe their brain functions. For instance, even a syllable with no meaning can interfere with an individual’s processing because they are embedded in their understanding.
Stroop Effect
The innovation of the Stroop effect by John Ridley Stroop was to show how as human beings, our interaction with the environment is impacted by our knowledge, making it the simple and elegant psychological test method. Between 1897 and 1973, it is believed that John Ridley Stroop contributed immensely and had a massive influence on art history. At the same time, it is thought that John Ridley Stroop and Jasper Johns are the pioneers of the cognitive dissonance classic demonstration where an individual is given color names with wrong pixels. Instead of reading the words, the individual is required to name the colors. According to Algom and Chajut (2019), such a process is considered challenging for the human brain, especially since when the retina sees blue, the left brain will have challenges saying red. The Stroop effect can enable the artist to use theory ambiguity and visual illusions and can be used to examine the current digital age, information overload anxiety, and distractions.
Below is an example of a Stroop test where words such as orange are printed in blue, so the participant is required to say the word blue and move on.
According to Pariss et al. (2021), many individuals or participants, in most cases, will take a long time to call out the word’s colors compared to reading the printed texts, even with similar incongruence. This means that the human brain will always want to read due to the nature of human beings being habitual readers, which is simple compared to providing cognitive effort when declaring the colors. The human brains put a lot of effort and work hards to process the color’s words and prevent reading.
Theories of the Stroop Effect
The three common theories are Stroop Asynchrony, Semantic Facilitation, and Semantic Interference. However, some theories do not have an accurate Stroop Effect definition because of the subject they emphasize or focus on. For instance, Semantic Interference underscores the cause for Stroop interference which is the human being’s automaticity of reading. At the same time, Semantic Facilitation emphasizes mental prioritizing. Human beings do not use mental prioritizing to define colors but for reading. Generally, despite the apparent theory variations, they all emphasize ensuring that people understand that declaring colors and stating them is more complicated and complex than reading, which is considered an automatic and more straightforward task. The processing time required will likely increase if there is a conflict between state colors and reading.
Uses of the Stroop Effect
In the past and currently, the Stroop Effect has been used as a paradigm that asses the cognitive speed process, control, executive function, and attentional capacity of human beings to examine their behavior and thoughts, especially since people interact with the world using such skills (Algom & Chajut, 2019). The tests that are carried out in regards to the Stroop Effect are carried out to demonstrate a speed disparity based on the training provided for stating the colors out loud and stating colors’ names. Occasionally, an audience will realize that some words, such as stimulus, are used during these tests. The particular response or reaction while a participant is reading is associated with a stimulus. For example, to name or to admire are some of the reactions or responses that are associated with the color stimulus (Algom & Chajut, 2019). Therefore, speed of processing, automaticity, selective attention, and parallel distributed processing are used to describe how to use the Stroop Effect. And provide accurate results, suggesting that labeling colors are more complex than reading words due to the vast experience human beings have with consciously reading books.
Conclusion
Generally, Stroop Effect has not only been used to measure an individual’s cognitive flexibility, speed processing, and selective attention. Still, it is currently used to study a particular group of people with ADHD and various mental disorders. The Stroop Effect test is given to individuals with depression to identify their cognitive capability and speed of thought.
References
Algom, D., & Chajut, E. (2019). Reclaiming the Stroop effect back from control to input-driven attention and perception. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1683.
Parris, B. A., Hasshim, N., Wadsley, M., Augustinova, M., & Ferrand, L. (2021). The loci of Stroop effects: a critical review of methods and evidence for levels of processing contributing to color-word Stroop effects and the implications for the loci of attentional selection. Psychological Research, 1-25.
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