Stimulus Materials Being Color Words example essay topic

Stroop Test Simulation (Comprehensive Paper) The Stroop Test was comprised in 1935 by J.R. Stroop, and it theorizes how automatic processes can at times interfere with the thinking needed to complete a task. After subjecting myself to this test I discovered the purpose and summary of the simulation; as well as psychological terms and theories that were used. First, the hypothesis of the Simulation Exercise was that it is easier to name the color patches than to name the color of words. This further leads to the Simulations purpose which is to prove whether or not automatic processes may at times interfere with ones thinking. This means basically, relating to the Stroop Test that when color patches are presented to a subject they have no problem naming the color in a very short period of time.

However, when you put color words in front a subject it takes them longer to name the color, simply because they feel the need to actually read the word first. This adds to the time it takes to name the color, and also shows that reading can be considered an automatic process. This Simulation Exercise introduced several psychological terms and helped to give me a better understanding of them. The first term that I noticed was hypothesis, or an educated guess about a phenomenon that is stated in concrete details to rule out confusion in it's meaning. Second, independent variable, which is a condition that an experimenter varies so he / she is able to see its impact on another variable (controls or manipulates). For this Simulation the independent variable was manipulating the nature of the stimulus materials in a color naming task.

Third, the dependent variable, definition: a variable that is thought to be affected by the manipulation of the independent variable, and it usually measures an aspect of the subjects behavior. In this case the dependent variable was the length of time it takes to name the colors. There was a variation to the Stroop Test compared to other experiments, and that was that they only used a control group; instead of both a control and experimental group. This proved to be positive though because it lead to being able to use two conditions in the place of one which related directly to the types of stimulus materials. First, the control condition, which was the color patches.

Second the experimental condition, represented by the stimulus materials being color words printed in incongruent colors. This condition was created for the experimenter to look for interference effects in naming the colors. Finally, my results and the summary of the Simulation Exercise. Unfortunately my results went against the hypothesis seeing as both tasks were equally easy for myself. This lead to my T test being 1.07, and my statistics being insignificant. However, going against my own results I still feel that J.R. Stroop was correct with his previous research.

Stroop felt that reading was an automatic process for adults. So, when faced with a stimuli consisting of words they cannot help but read them. This in return would slow down the naming of the color when the word being read has a different color name than that which it is printed in. Going along with his view, the Stroop effect does not seem to occur until after children start to read. In conclusion, from my interaction with the Stroop Simulation Exercise I acquired a new and far better understanding to the scientific method as well the terms that went along with the Simulation. Also I now possess a different view on principles and theories behind automatic processes, and find my results from the experiment slightly off base.