Stroop interference effects in partially colored Stroop words

Abstract

In the Stroop task, word reading is thought to be automatic since it runs without intentional monitoring and is difficult to avoid. This view has recently been challenged by observations that Stroop interference is reduced when only part of the Stroop word is colored. In this study we asked whether the extent of Stroop interference varies with the position of the colored letter(s). We observed that Stroop interference was smallest when the first letter(s)were colored and largest when either the last letter(s) or whole word were colored. On these findings we suggest that colored and noncolored parts of partially colored words are processed separately and differently, and that selection of the color dimension for explicit report entails inhibition of the to-be-ignored colored letters.

An Optimal Viewing Position Effect in the Stroop Task When Only One Letter Is the Color Carrier

“…Interference with such stimuli can only be semantic and thus one could conclude that semantic processing is curtailed by the experimental manipulations. Despite this, Manwell et al stated that the notion that semantic processing is curtailed under such conditions is not the best explanation of the results, given other studies showing that negative priming observed on a subsequent trial is obtained following a Stroop stimulus with only a single letter colored (see Besner, 2001, andMari-Beffa, Estevez, &Danziger, 2000, for evidence of negative priming). Instead they argued that coloring a single element provides subjects with a cue that helps them select a source of activation, making it easier to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant sources of activation.…”

Stroop effects on redemption and semantic effects on confession: simultaneous automatic activation of embedded and carrier words

“…These results are somewhat different from what normally found in the single-letter Stroop task. For instance, Danziger et al (2002), Experiment 1 found that interference increased linearly across positions of the color letter to the extent that the final-letter condition led to the same amount of interference found when the entire word was colored (see also Marmurek et al 2006 for similar results with a modified version of the Stroop task). Furthermore, it is interesting to note that results found in auditory word recognition and/or cross-modal studies show that beginning-embedded words are not processed as independent words, as shown by priming data.…”

“…Color word position The priming effect was calculated by subtracting response times on related trials from response times on unrelated trials suggesting that word activation processes linked to word reading can occur despite partial word-coloring manipulations (see Danziger et al 2002, andMacNevin andBesner 2002 for similar results). Interestingly, our results indicate that word processing is carried out even when the color word is in the final part of the carrier word, a condition that should maximize the likelihood of ignoring the beginning of the carrier word.…”

A brief review of three manipulations of the Stroop task focusing on the automaticity of semantic access

“…Several explanatory hypotheses are supported: blocking access to the semantics of the word (Besner et al, 1997), the initial fixation in a word (Danziger et al, 2002;Parris et al, 2007), the modality of response (Marmurek, 2003).…”