DOCSLIB.ORG

Perception Without Awareness: Further Evidence from a Stroop Priming Task

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Perception Without Awareness: Further Evidence from a Stroop Priming Task Perception & Psychophysics 2002, 64 (8), 1316–1324 Perception without awareness: Further evidence from a Stroop priming task M. TERESA DAZA and JUAN J. ORTELLS University of Almería, Almería, Spain and ELAINE FOX University of Essex, Essex, England In the present research,we examined the influence of prime–targetstimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) on Stroop-priming effects from masked words. Participants indicated the color of a central target, which was preceded by a 33-msec prime word followed either immediately or after a variable delay by a pattern mask. The prime word was incongruent or congruent with the target color on 75% and 25% of the trials, respectively. The words followed by an immediate mask produced reliable Stroop interfer- ence at SOAs of 300 and 400 msec but not at SOAs of 500 and 700 msec. The words followed by a de- layedmask produced a reversed(i.e., facilitatory)Stroop effect, which reached significance at an SOA of 400 msec or longer, but never at the shorter 300-msec SOA. Such an differential time course of both types of Stroop priming effects provides further evidence for the existence of qualitative differences between conscious and nonconscious perceptual processes. The question of whether perception can occur without scious experience is indexed by some behavioral measure awareness has been the focus of considerableresearch and that demonstrates an observer’s inability to discriminate discussionfor many years (for recent reviews, see Merikle between alternative stimulus states (see, e.g., Balota, & Daneman, 1998; Merikle, Smilek, & Eastwood, 2001). 1983; Fowler, Wolford, Slade, & Tassinary, 1981; Green- The logic followed by the majority of studies within ex- wald, Draine, & Abrams, 1996; Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc, perimental psychologyhas been to demonstrate a dissoci- 1980; Marcel, 1983a, 1983b). Considerablediscussion has ation between two indexes or measures of perception that taken place regarding whether subjectiveor objectivemea- are assumed to assess perception with and without aware- sures provide the more accurate method for demonstrat- ness, respectively. It has been widely assumed that a pre- ing perception without awareness (e.g., Eriksen, 1960; requisite for a dissociationbetween measures of conscious Holender, 1986; Reingold & Merikle, 1990). In either and unconscious perception is that the index of conscious case, a major weakness of traditionalapproachesusingthe perception must provide an exhaustive measure of all rel- dissociation paradigm is that the conclusiveness of find- evant conscious experiences and that such a measure ac- ings presumed to provide evidence for unconscious per- tually exhibit null sensitivity (Merikle, 1992; Reingold & ception depends entirely on the adequacy of the measures Merikle, 1990). Two general classes of exhaustive mea- used to define consciousness.As notedby Merikleand Joor- sures of conscious awareness have been used: subjective dens (1997b), the attempt to merely prove the existence and objective. With subjective measures, awareness is as- (or nonexistence) of unconscious perception does not ap- sessed on the basis of the observers’ introspective self- pear to be a particularly useful strategy. This is because it reports of their conscious perceptual experiences (e.g., is impossible to demonstrate convincinglythat a null sen- Cheesman & Merikle,1986; Forster & Davis, 1984;Sidis, sitivity equates with the absence of conscious perception 1898; see Adams, 1957, for a review of the earliest stud- of the relevant information, regardless of whether a sub- ies). With objectivemeasures, the absence of relevant con- jective or an objective measure of awareness is used. As an alternative to establishing dissociations between measures, a more interestingquestionthat can be addressed is how unconsciousperception differs from conscious per- This research was partly supported by Grant BSO2000-1411-C02-02 from Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Dirección General de Investi- ception.In other words, perceptionwith and without aware- gación (Spain), to the second author. The findingsof Experiment 2 were ness must be compared in order to determine whether a presented at the II Congress of the Spanish Society of Experimental Psy- stimulus can have qualitatively different effects on cogni- chology (SEPEX), March, 2000, Barcelona, Spain. Correspondence tive and affective reactions depending on whether it is ei- should be addressed to either M. T. Daza or J. J. Ortells, Departamento de Neurociencia y Ciencias de la Salud, Facultad de Humanidades y ther consciously or unconsciously perceived. As noted by Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Almería, 04120 Almería, Merikle et al. (2001), the logic underlying this alternative Spain (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]). approach assumes that the information consciously per- Copyright 2002 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 1316 STROOP PRIMING EFFECTS FROM MASKED WORDS 1317 ceived enables individualsto act intentionallyand to pro- prime word (RED or GREEN in gray color) for 33 msec, which duce effects in the world, whereas information perceived was followedeitherimmediatelyor after a delayof 134 msec without awareness leads to more automatic reactions that (dependingon the group of participants)by a pattern mask cannot be controlled by individuals (e.g., Marcel, 1988; (seven ampersands in gray color), thus resulting in a Searle, 1992). A good example of how conscious and un- prime–mask stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of either conscious perceptual processes differ comes from the ex- 33 msec1 or 167 msec, respectively. The masked prime clusion task used by Debner and Jacoby (1994; for other word was always followed by a central target, which con- interesting qualitative differences in the consequences of sisted of seven ampersands displayed, until response, in perception with and without awareness, see also Groeger, either red or green, with participants being required to 1984, 1988; Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc, 1980; Marcel, make a buttonpressresponse to indicatethe target color as 1980; Murphy & Zajonc, 1993). On each trial, a single quickly as possible. For both groups of participants, the word (e.g., table) was presented for either a short (i.e., 50- prime–target SOA remained fixed at 300 msec. The prime msec) or a somewhat longer (i.e., 150-msec) duration and and the target were incongruent (RED–green) on 75% of was followed by a mask. Immediately following the mask, the trials, whereas on the remaining 25% of the trials, the the first three letters of the word were presented again prime and the target were congruent (RED–red). Merikle (e.g., tab__), and the participants were required to com- and Joordens (1997b) found a significant crossover inter- plete the word stem with any word that came to mind ex- action between masking condition and prime–target con- cept the word that had just been presented (e.g., they could gruency: With a delayed mask (i.e., a prime–mask SOA of complete the word stem with taboo, but not table). Deb- 167 msec), the reaction times (RTs) were faster on incon- ner and Jacoby found that participants were able to fol- gruent than on congruent trials. Such a reversed (i.e., fa- low these exclusion instructions only when the word was cilitatory) Stroop effect suggests that participants con- presented for the longer 150-msec duration. But for the sciously identified the prime word followed by a delayed short 50-msec duration, they used the preceding words to mask and then used the predictive information provided complete the word stems on a proportionof trials that was by the word to anticipatethe forthcoming target color (see significantly above chance. This finding suggests that also Logan, Zbrodoff, & Williamson, 1984). In contrast, the words were unconsciously perceived in the 50-msec with an immediate mask (i.e., a prime–mask SOA of condition. 33 msec), a typical Stroop interference effect (slower RTs It is interestingto note that the exclusionprocedure pro- on incongruent than on congruent trials) emerged, sug- vides particularly compelling evidence for unconscious gesting that participants experienced no awareness of the perception, since conscious and unconscious influences primes when they were presented for 33 msec and were are placed “in opposition.” On the contrary, most of the immediately followed by a mask. This crossover in per- traditional approaches have used facilitation paradigms, formance across masking conditions (see also Merikle whereby effects on unconscious perception of a stimulus et al., 1995; Merikle & Joordens, 1997a) is consistentwith produce the same pattern (i.e., a facilitation in perfor- the view that perception with awareness and perception mance) as does conscious perception. According to Deb- without awareness can produce qualitativelydifferent be- ner and Jacoby (1994), because both types of processes havioral consequences. can contribute to performance in a similar vein (i.e., fa- Note, however, that the Stroop priming effects reported cilitating), it is difficult to determine whether the suppos- by Merikle and Joordens (1997b)were of a relativelysmall edly unconscious influences might partly or completely size. More importantly, to the extent that the reversed be attributedto residualconsciousperception.In contrast, Stroop effect under the delayed masking condition re- in studies using proceduressuch as the exclusiontask, ev- flected the contribution of strategic processes, such a re- idence of unconscious perception cannot be explained as sult could be viewed as an
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Emotional Stroop Effect in Anxiety Disorders General Emotionality Or Disorder Specificity?
    Anxiety Disorders 15 Q2001) 147±159 The emotional Stroop effect in anxiety disorders General emotionality or disorder specificity? Eni S. Beckera,*, Mike Rincka, JuÈrgen Margraf a, Walton T. Rothb aTU, Dresden, Germany bVA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA Received 8 January 1999; received in revised form 22 April 1999; accepted 15 October 1999 Abstract Selective attentional biases, often documented with a modified Stroop task, are considered to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety. Two competing explanations for these effects are selectivity for highly emotional words in general vs. selectivity for disorder-specific words. We tested these explanations in 32 patients with generalized anxiety disorder QGAD), 29 patients with social phobia QSP), and 31 non-anxious controls. Stimuli were of four kinds: GAD-related words, SP-related words, words with a neutral valence, and words with a positive valence. Different attentional biases were observed: GAD patients were slowed by all types of emotional words, while SP patients were distracted specifically by speech-related words. D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Attention; Generalized anxiety disorder; Social phobia; Stroop task 1. Introduction Cognitive models of anxiety have received increasing empirical support over the past decade Qe.g., Barlow 1988; Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 1985; 1992). * Corresponding author. Department of Clinical Psychology, Dresden University of Technology, D-01062 Dresden, Germany. E-mail address: [email protected] QE.S. Becker). 0887-6185/01/$ ± see front matter D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S0887-6185Q01)00055-X 148 E.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Cognitive Psychology
    COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY PSYCH 126 Acknowledgements College of the Canyons would like to extend appreciation to the following people and organizations for allowing this textbook to be created: California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Chancellor Diane Van Hook Santa Clarita Community College District College of the Canyons Distance Learning Office In providing content for this textbook, the following professionals were invaluable: Mehgan Andrade, who was the major contributor and compiler of this work and Neil Walker, without whose help the book could not have been completed. Special Thank You to Trudi Radtke for editing, formatting, readability, and aesthetics. The contents of this textbook were developed under the Title V grant from the Department of Education (Award #P031S140092). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Unless otherwise noted, the content in this textbook is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Table of Contents Psychology .................................................................................................................................................... 1 126 ................................................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 - History of Cognitive Psychology ............................................................................................. 7 Definition of Cognitive Psychology
    [Show full text]
  • Practice and Colour-Word Integration in Stroop Interference
    Psicológica (2015), 36, 37-67. Practice and colour-word integration in Stroop interference Amara Gul1 and Glyn W. Humphreys2 1The University of Birmingham, UK. 2Oxford University, UK. Congruency effects were examined using a manual response version of the Stroop task in which the relationship between the colour word and its hue on incongruent trials was either kept constant or varied randomly across different pairings within the stimulus set. Congruency effects were increased in the condition where the incongruent hue-word relations were maintained. This effect was observed even when only a single letter was coloured rather than the whole word. The data suggest that the Stroop interference effect can increase when words and hues become bound by learning, which can make it more difficult to ignore the word when responding to the hue. The implications for understanding Stroop interference are discussed. Stroop colour naming is one of the most widely studied paradigms for examining human selective attention (Stroop, 1935; see MacLeod, 1991, for a review). In the classic version of the test, participants are asked to name the colour of the ink in which a word is written while ignoring the word. Typically, reaction times (RTs) to name the ink colour are slower when word‘s name is incongruent (word RED in blue ink) relative to when it is congruent with the colour name (RED in red ink). In contrast, at least for naming tasks, the effects of color congruence on word naming are small (White, 1969). This interference effect from the word on naming its colour demonstrates that we have problems in attending selectively to one component of a multidimensional stimulus and ignoring a highly over 1 Acknowledgement: Preparation of this article was supported by the IUB-FDP scholarship to the first author.
    [Show full text]
  • Does the Modified Stroop Effect Exist in PTSD?
    Journal of Anxiety Disorders 23 (2009) 650–655 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Anxiety Disorders Does the modified Stroop effect exist in PTSD? Evidence from dissertation abstracts and the peer reviewed literature Matthew O. Kimble a,*, B. Christopher Frueh b, Libby Marks a a Department of Psychology, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753, United States b Department of Psychology, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Hilo, HI, United States ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: The modified Stroop effect (MSE), in which participants show delayed colour naming to trauma-specific Received 26 June 2008 words, is one of the most widely cited findings in the literature pertaining to cognitive bias in Received in revised form 28 January 2009 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The current study used a novel approach (Dissertation Abstract Accepted 2 February 2009 Review; DAR) to review the presence of the MSE in dissertation abstracts. A review of dissertations that used the modified Stroop task in a PTSD sample revealed that only 8% of the studies found delayed Keywords: reaction times to trauma-specific words in participants with PTSD. The most common finding (75%) was Modified Stroop for no PTSD-specific effects in colour naming trauma-relevant words. This ratio is significantly lower Attentional bias than ratios found in the peer reviewed literature, but even in the peer reviewed literature only 44% of PTSD Trauma controlled studies found the modified Stroop effect. These data suggest that a reevaluation of the MSE in Dissertation Abstract Review PTSD is warranted. ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Modified versions of the original Stroop (1935) task have been depressive, anxiety, and eating disorders (Dagleish & Power, widely used to demonstrate biases in the processing of information 2004; MacLeod, 2005).
    [Show full text]
  • Paying Attention to the Stroop Effect?
    Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (1996), 2,467-470. Copyright © 1996 INS. Published by Cambridge University Press. Printed in the USA. LETTER TO THE EDITOR Paying attention to the Stroop effect? AVISHAI HENIK Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel (RECEIVED November 15, 1995; REVISED January 8, 1996; ACCEPTED February 21, 1996) Studies of attention commonly use conflict situations, such (RCNd). On average, subjects were 2.3 s slower to read color as the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935), in which subjects are asked names in the incongruent condition than when the same to attend to an object or a dimension and simultaneously names were printed in black. Stroop concluded that this ef- ignore other objects or dimensions. Because of its reliabil- fect was not reliable, and further experiments have repli- ity and robustness, the Stroop task is included in many neuro- cated this finding (MacLeod, 1991). That is, colors do not psychology batteries for investigating attentional processing reliably interfere with reading of words. in a variety of populations. Unfortunately, despite its wide The second experiment measured interference of words application, the task is sometimes misapplied because some on naming colors. This experiment was also composed of studies are not motivated by a conceptual framework, but two conditions: (1) squares of colors (e.g., a square of red only by empirical diagnostic criteria. The data resulting from color), and (2) an incongruent condition similar to that men- some studies are either uninterpretable or, worse, mislead- tioned for the first experiment. Subjects were asked to name ing.
    [Show full text]
  • Unconsciously Controlled Processing: the Stroop Effect Reconsidered
    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 1999. 6 (3). 449-455 Unconsciously controlled processing: The Stroop effect reconsidered DEREKBESNERand JENNIFER A. STOLZ University ojWaterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada The Stroop effect is widely consideredto be compelling evidence that an acquired skill such as read­ ing is "automatic" in the sense that lexical/semantic analyses of single words cannot be prevented, even when they are irrelevant and harmful to the task at hand. This view is challenged by a series of three experiments in which the presence/absence of a Stroop effect depends on (1) whether all ofthe target elements are colored or not, in conjunction with (2) whether the target and the spatially distinct color word distractor belong to the same domain or not. A framework is offered in which domain-specific encoding algorithms play a major role. Skilled word recognition is typically unconscious, but is char­ acterized better as contextually controlled, rather than "automatic." It is well established that, for skilled readers who are Stolz, 1999, for related findings). Iflexical/semantic pro­ explicitly told to refrain from reading a word, it takes cessing associated with word recognition is not control­ more time to identify the word's color ifthe word and its lable, as much ofa Stroop effect should have been found color are incongruent (e.g., red letters spelling the word in the single-colored-letter condition as in the all-letters­ green) than it does to identify the color ofthe word ifthe colored condition. Given that there is little or no Stroop word and its color are congruent (e.g., green letters effect in the former condition, characterizing word recog­ spelling the word green).
    [Show full text]
  • Investigation of the Stroop Effect in a Virtual Reality Environment
    Tallinn University of Technology School of Information Technologies Younus Ali 177356IASM Investigation of the Stroop Effect in a Virtual Reality Environment Master’s Thesis Aleksei Tepljakov Ph.D. Research Scientist TALLINN 2020 Declaration of Originality Declaration: I hereby declare that this thesis, my original investigation and achieve- ment, submitted for the Master’s degree at Tallinn University of Technology, has not been submitted for any degree or examination. Younus Ali Date: January 7, 2020 Signature: ......................................... Abstract Human cognitive behavior is an exciting subject to study. In this work, the Stroop effect is investigated. The classical Stroop effect arises as a consequence of cognitive interference due to mismatch of the written color name and the actual text color. The purpose of this study is to investigate the Stroop effect and Reverse Stroop in the virtual reality environment by considering response, error, and subjective selection. An interactive application using virtual reality technology with Unreal Engine implemented using instruction-based Stroop and reversed Stroop tasks. In the designed test, participants need to throw a cube-shaped object into three specific zones according to instructions. The instructions depend on the color ( represents Stroop Test ) or the meaning of the words (represents reversed Stroop test). The instructions using either congruent or incongruent (“blue” displayed in red or green) color stimuli. Participants took more time to respond to the Stroop test than
    [Show full text]
  • Association Between Olfactory Function and Inhibition of Emotional
    www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Association between olfactory function and inhibition of emotional competing distractors in major depressive disorder Fang Wang 1,2, Jin Jin2, Jun Wang1, Ruoqiao He3, Kaiyun Li4, Xiaonan Hu1, Yongchao Li1 & Yuncheng Zhu 2* We aimed to investigate the changes of olfaction of major depressive disorder (MDD) before and after medical treatment, and to preliminarily scrutinize the association between the olfactory function and the severity of depressive symptoms, response inhibition, and emotional responding. Forty-eight medicine-naïve MDD patients plus 33 healthy controls (HC) matched on gender, ages, and level of education, were recruited in the test group. The Chinese Smell Identifcation Test (CSIT), Self-reported Olfactory Scale (SROS), 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA), and mean reaction time/accuracy rate (ΔMRT) of emotional Stroop test were measured. The patients were assessed before the treatment (baseline) and 3 months after the treatment (follow-up). The data at the baseline level were measured then associated using multiple linear regression stepwise analysis. The MDD patients had lower scores of the CSIT and SROS and longer ΔMRT at baseline level compared to HC while the ΔMRT of MDD patients remained longer after 3-month treatment (p’s < 0.05). At the baseline level, the regression equation including age and ΔMRT of negative word-color congruent (NEG-C), was fnally observed as follows: y(CSIT) = 10.676–0.063 × 1–0.002 × 2, [x1 = the age(y), x2 = the NEG-C (ms)]. The olfactory function of MDD appears to be correlated negatively with the age and the ΔMRT of negative stimuli before treatment.
    [Show full text]
  • Electrophysiological Evidence of Anticipatory Cognitive Control in the Stroop Task
    brain sciences Article Electrophysiological Evidence of Anticipatory Cognitive Control in the Stroop Task Valentina Bianco 1,2,* , Marika Berchicci 3, Elena Mussini 3, Rinaldo Livio Perri 3,4 , Federico Quinzi 3 and Francesco Di Russo 2,3 1 Department of Languages and Literatures, Communication, Education and Society, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy 2 IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy; [email protected] 3 Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, 00135 Rome, Italy; [email protected] (M.B.); [email protected] (E.M.); [email protected] (R.L.P.); [email protected] (F.Q.) 4 Department of Psychology, University “Niccolò Cusano”, 00166 Rome, Italy * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: The Stroop task has been largely used to explore the ability to inhibit the automatic process of reading when reporting the ink color of incongruent color-words. Given the extensive literature regarding the processes involved in task performance, here we aimed at exploring the anticipatory brain activities during the Stroop task using the event-related potential (ERP) method. To accomplish this, eighteen participants performed two different blocks where neutral words were intermixed with congruent and incongruent words, respectively. Results revealed consistent pre-stimulus activity over the frontal, premotor and parietal brain areas. The premotor and the parietal activities were also modulated by the Stroop effect, being more enhanced in the incongruent than in the congruent blocks. Present findings add on the current literature pointing at an unexplored locus Citation: Bianco, V.; Berchicci, M.; of anticipatory cognitive control during task preparation, thus offering a new way to investigate Mussini, E.; Perri, R.L.; Quinzi, F.; Di top-down preparatory processes of performance control in the Stroop task.
    [Show full text]
  • Role of Attention and Translation in Conflict Resolution: Implications for Stroop Matching Task Interference
    PSYCHOLOGY Psychology & Neuroscience, 2010, 3, 2, 141 - 150 NEUROSCIENCE DOI: 10.3922/j.psns.2010.2.003 Role of attention and translation in conflict resolution: implications for Stroop matching task interference Walter Machado-Pinheiro1, Eliane Volchan2, Jaime Vila3, Elisa C. Dias4, Isabel Alfradique1, Letícia de Oliveira1, Mirtes G. Pereira1, and Isabel A. David1 1- Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ, Brazil 2- Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil 3- Universidad de Granada, Granada, AN, Spain 4- Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA Abstract We studied the influence of attention on the timecourse of Stroop-like conflict. Thirty-two volunteers performed a Stroop matching task in which they had to compare either the color (n = 16) or meaning (n = 16) of two stimuli. The first stimulus was always a color-name printed in yellow, red, or blue (i.e., Stroop stimulus), and the second stimulus was either a color-bar (Experiment 1) or color-word in white ink (Experiment 2). Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was varied parametrically. Interference by incongruent Stroop stimuli was clearly modulated by SOA manipulation in both cases. The results are discussed in terms of interactions between translational and attentional models in which the degree of Stroop-like interference is attributed to time implementation of attentional mechanisms during color-to-color and color-to-word matching contexts. Keywords: attention, Stroop task, timecourse, reaction time, cognitive processes, matching Received 3 May 2010; received in revised form 19 October 2010; accepted 22 October 2010. Available on line 28 December 2010 Introduction the observation that volunteers need more time to name the color ink of incongruent color-words (i.e., the word The complex environment in which we live makes “blue” in red ink) than congruent color-words (i.e., the distinguishing relevant from irrelevant information word “blue” in blue ink) or neutral ones (e.g., a sequence necessary.
    [Show full text]
  • Effect of Methylphenidate on Stroop Color–Word Task Performance in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
    Psychiatry Research 141 (2006) 315–320 www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres Effect of methylphenidate on Stroop Color–Word task performance in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Daniel D. Langleben a,*, John Monterosso d, Igor Elman b, Brian Ash a, Gary Krikorian c, Glenn Austin c,F a Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 3900 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States b McLean Hospital, Harvard University School of Medicine, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478, United States c The Community/Academia Coalition, Mountain View, CA, United States d Department of Psychology, University of California-Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, United States Received 25 March 2005; received in revised form 8 September 2005; accepted 18 September 2005 Dedicated to the memory of Glenn Austin Abstract Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neuropsychiatric syndrome common in the pediatric population. It is associated with multiple nonspecific deficits on neuropsychological tests of executive function, and a beneficial response to pharmacotherapy with methylphenidate (MPH) and other psychostimulants. The Stroop Color–Word task is used empirically as an aid in diagnosis and treatment monitoring of ADHD; however, data on the sensitivity of the Stroop interference score to the effects of MPH are limited. To address this issue, we studied Stroop performance in a cohort of 18 MPH-treated prepubescent boys with ADHD and six healthy controls on and off MPH treatment conditions. MPH significantly improved performance in both groups, with the ADHD participants consistently displaying worse scores than those of controls both on and off MPH.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Ability Is Negatively Related to Stroop Interference ଝ
    Cognitive Psychology 54 (2007) 251–282 www.elsevier.com/locate/cogpsych Reading ability is negatively related to Stroop interference ଝ a, b,1 Athanassios Protopapas ¤, Anastasia Archonti , Christos Skaloumbakas c,2 a Institute for Language and Speech Processing/Athena, Artemidos 6 & Epidavrou, GR-15125 Maroussi, Greece b Panteion University, Greece c Children’s Psychiatric Hospital of Attiki, Greece Accepted 21 July 2006 Available online 7 September 2006 Abstract Stroop interference is often taken as evidence for reading automaticity even though young and poor readers, who presumably lack reading automaticity, present strong interference. Here the rela- tionship between reading skills and Stroop interference was studied in a 7th-grade sample. Greater interference was observed in children diagnosed with reading disability (dyslexia) than in unimpaired children. Moreover, poorer reading skills were found to correlate with greater Stroop interference in the general school population. In correlation and regression analyses, interference was primarily associated with reading speed, with an additional unique contribution of reading accuracy. Color naming errors were few and not comparably related to reading skills. The relation of reading skill to Stroop interference was examined in computational modeling simulations. The production model of Roelofs [Roelofs, A. (2003). Goal-referenced selection of verbal action: modeling attentional control in the Stroop task. Psychological Review, 110, 88–125], in which interference is primarily due to word stimuli having direct access to word form encoding whereas color naming must pass through concept activation and lemma selection, was found to account well for the human data after imposing covari- ation constraints on parameters controlling word processing and blocking latency, in modiWcations ଝ We are grateful to A.
    [Show full text]