Stroop

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Stroop

Basic Characteristics

• Description

The Stroop task is an assessment of a person's ability to direct attention. It is considered to be an indicator of selective attention and stems from our ability to read words more quickly and automatically than we can name colors. The Stroop task may be best described as a cognitive assessment of directional attention where we must manage our attention and inhibit or stop a response in order to do or say something else. In the original versions of the test participants were either "Reading Colored Names" or "Naming Colored Words". "Reading Colored Names" required that participants say the written meaning of words in different color fonts. "Naming Colored Words" required that participants identify outloud the color of the written color name. Today the Stroop test is used to investigate mental disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Schizophrenia. It is employed in EEG and fMRI studies to study frontal lobe function and the cingulate cortex.

• History

John Ridley Stroop first published the effects of this test in 1935. Stroop noticed a significant delay in time for people to name colored words despite practice. It was hence thought that the mind automatically determines the semantic meaning of the word and that it must override this first impression in order to say the color (a process which is not automatized). Edith Kaplan expanded upon the original version of the test by creating four different stages: naming color fields, congruent color words, incongruent color words, and combined.

• References

Perlstein, William M.;Carter,Cameron S.; Barch Deanna M.;Baird, James N. (1998) The Stroop Task and Attention Deficits in Schizophrenia: A Critical Evaluation of Card and Single Trial Stroop Methodologies. PMID 9673997

Related Information

• Cognitive construct associated with this task (vote for your favorite, or nominate a new construct label by editing this page):
  • attention, directed attention, selective attention, response inhibition

• Indicators (dependent variables, conditions, or contrasts; measurement variables used for analysis) associated with this task (vote or nominate by editing this page):
  • Stroop Interference, Color-Naming

• Closely related pages (vote or nominate related pages by editing this page):

• CNP Level
  • Cognitive Phenotype

External Resources

• Links out:
  • Google: Stroop
  • Wikipedia: Stroop
  • PubBrain: Stroop
  • PubMed: Stroop
  • -ucla cognitive atlas- (coming soon!)

• Database links
  • Phenowiki Papers For Stroop

Task Details

• Task Structure (please given an overview of the task procedures here [i.e., overall design, block, trial, and within-trial event structure and timing])
  • procedure
    • block:
    • trial:
• Stimulus Characteristics
  • sensory modality (e.g., visual, auditory, somatosensory, gustatory, olfactory):
  • functional modality (e.g., linguistic, spatial, numerical, categorical):
  • presentation modality (e.g., human examiner, paper, computer display, headphones, speaker):
• Response Characteristics
  • response required -
    • effector modality (e.g., vocal, manual, pedal):
    • functional modality (e.g., words, drawing, writing, keypress, movement):
  • response options (e.g., yes/no, go/no-go, forced choice, multiple choice [specify n of options], free response)-
  • response collection (e.g., examiner notes, keyboard, keypad, mouse, voice key, button press)-
• Assessment/Control Characteristics
  • timing-
    • monthly cycle dependent??
    • circadian dependent??
  • control assessment
    • 5 senses??