The Stroop Effect And How It Affects A Person’s Ability To Deal With
Conflicting Sensory Situations.
Harrison Gray and Arthur Nemet
Submitted as a Psychology Practical Report
Due Date: 23rd April
Tutor: Ms Joblin
Class: Year 11 VCE Psychology
Abstract
The experiment conducted in pairs by year 11 VCE Psychology students, was aimed at
replicating and confirming the results published in the Stroop effect and observing how they
affect a person’s ability to deal with conflicting sensory information. The Hypothesis that the
VCE students decided to use, was that the conflicting sensory data that people were given
would indeed affect the time of their responses and impact on their ability to read the
information out correctly and fluently. The Information collected by the VCE Psychology
students after completing the experiment on the Stroop effect showed great similarities
with the initial hypothesis suggesting that the Stroop effect is indeed an example of
conflicting sensory information and its ability to confound and perplex the participant in
certain ways. The results gathered by the VCE Psychology students show that the Stroop
effect is an accurate representation of sensory perplexity.
There have been many ways over the years to which have arisen methods to confuse people
with sensory information. One such way is known as the Stroop effect. The research
completed by American psychologist John Ridley Stroop has been repeated numerous times
and has become a well known area of perception in psychology. The Stroop effect is the
observation that individuals are more likely to make errors and take a longer time to name
the colour of the ink when the meaning of the word is different to that of the colour it is
written in. The Stroop effect relies on different combinations of words and colours.
The effect claims to cause the brain problems in efficiently processing competing inputs of
sensory information and be able to cause people to make perceptual errors and take extra
time in interpreting them. The independent variable in this experiment was the conditions
given to the participants to read and interpret. The dependant variable in this experiment is
that of the results received by the VCE psychology students when completing their research;
this came in the form of time taken and number of errors made. The Hypothesis created by
the VCE Psychology students performing the experiment to see if the Stroop effect was an
observable way to view the difficulties the brain had in identifying conflicting sensory
information, was that the conflicting sensory data that people were given would indeed
affect the time of their responses and impact on their ability to read the information out
correctly and fluently. The VCE Psychology students also decided that condition one would
result in the least amount of errors and take the least amount of time and that condition
two would include the most on both accounts because of the more conflicting sensory data.
Studies completed by psychologists such as Macleod, Lindsey and Jacoby point to the fact
that the Stroop effect occurs because when a person is presented with a word, the
autonomous response is to read the word. When humans are confronted by competing
information requiring attention, the automatic response is to read the information. This
initial response interferes with the attempt at naming the colour of the ink. Consequently,
completing the latter component of colour identification requires greater attention and
mental effort, which also take more time. These studies imply that Stroop’s effect could be a
logical way to observe perceptual complexities arising in identifying competing information.
2
Method
Participants
The participants were all students of Lara Secondary College between the ages of 14 to 16,
of both males and females. The participants were selected using random allocation.
Materials
Test sheet
Stationary equipment
Stopwatch
Computer
Procedure

We established our aim and created our hypothesis on the results we would have at the
conclusion of the study.
We then transferred the test (Appendix 1) from our Psychology book to a sheet of folded
paper. The way the paper was folded allowed us to show the participant each Condition
(Appendix 1) without showing the other three until we wanted to.
The data was written down in a book as the test occurred.
We then graphed the data drew conclusions from it.



Results
Participants
One
Two
Three
Four
Condition One
Condition Two
Condition Three
Condition Four
Time
4.84
4.58
3.57
5.58
Time
13.07
11.11
11.57
17.4
Time
6.56
5.81
9.43
5.6
Time
4.77
5.46
7.14
5.39
Errors
0
0
0
0
Errors
0
1
1
2
Errors
0
0
0
0
Errors
0
0
0
0
Measured in seconds and milliseconds
20
KEY
18
Condition One – Read
the words
16
14
12
Participant One
10
Participant Two
8
Participant Three
6
Participant Four
4
Condition Two – State
the colour of the ink
Condition Three –
State the colour of the
block
2
0
Condition
One
Condition
Two
Condition
Three
Condition
Four
Condition Four – State
the colour of the ink
3
Conditions
One
Two
Three
Four
Tally (Errors)
Total
0
3
0
0
III
Discussion
The data that was gathered has supported the hypothesis that the Stroop effect does
indeed occur and the presence of competing sensory inputs causes the participants to
become confused and make mistakes or slow down.
The results also support the hypothesis that Condition One was the easiest, with all times
under six seconds, and that Condition Two was the hardest, the only one with errors and
lagging times. The contrast between the Condition One results and the Condition Two
results show that by reading a colour in a different coloured ink causes the brain to take
longer in determining the colour written, because it is confused with the colour it was
printed in. In the participants haste, the brain isn’t fast enough to process the information
and errors were made, although few.
This research study has produced similar results to previous studies and through replication
it has shown to have corresponding data. It can definitely be applied to the wider
population that the Stroop effect does occur and that people find information harder to
understand and interpret when confronted with conflicting sensory inputs.
4
References:
Websites and internet based information on the Stroop Effect:
http://psycnet.apa.org
http://www.sciamdigital.com
Books:
LINDA CARTER/JOHN GRIVAS
Psychology Text Book, Units 1 and 2.
5
Appendices
Appendix 1
Appendix 2