Stroop Effect - Essay Example

The Troop Effect Test Attention In trying to understand the Stroop Effect, let us first look at what attention is. Styles (24) define attention as the cognitive process that allows an individual to focus and concentrate selectively on a particular aspect within his/her surrounding while ignoring others. It can be considered as a spotlight that focuses all your awareness on a single phenomenon of interest. Is a clear demonstration of what is going on in your head or in your immediate environment. When something catches your attention, you tend to direct all your concentration as well as resources on that particular thing. This instructs the brain to process information regarding only that particular aspect. The ability to pay attention is very essential since it helps us to make decisions on what to do or not do in our daily activities (Mcleod 655). Furthermore, it is also required in schools where students have to pay attention to their teachers in order to comprehend what they are being taught. There are other instances when the brain receives confusing messages which require the application of the theory of selective attention. Here an individual first analyses the situation and communicates later (Lund 102). In other circumstances the ability to pay attention may be affected to an extent that an individual cannot concentrate on a particular aspect of interest. Such people are likely to be diagnosed with a condition referred to as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). This problem usually occurs during childhood when the brain is developing. Children suffering from this condition portray certain characteristics which set them different from their normal peers. Some of these conditions include inattentiveness while being spoken to and hyper-activeness when carrying out their daily activities (Styles 25). They also get destructed very easily and can even end up taking part in numerous activities but fail to complete them. Sine their interest is short-lived forgetfulness becomes part of their lives. Automatic and controlled processing Automatic and controlled processing is also referred to as the theory of dual-process. This theory is based on the assumption that two divisions exist within the mental processes; one operates automatically while the other works under controlled circumstances (Lund 81). Automatic processing occurs under certain specific conditions that are mainly beyond an individual’s control. To start with, they are usually educed unintentionally and thus need hardly any cognitive resources. Furthermore, they require no voluntary control and their occurrence do not require conscious awareness. This means that even though you might not be interested so much on a certain aspect in your surroundings, you just get yourself participating in it. Mcleod (658) concurs that in this case, there is neither the formation of pro-social nor pro-environmental behaviors but rather the reaction is on impulse. Automatic processing is both an advantageous as well as disadvantageous process. First, let us consider a student in a driving school being thought how to drive (Simons and Levin 644). Coordinating all the activities from the pedals, clutch, steering, traffic lights and still keep a conversation with someone in the car might be very difficult and confusing. These activities require much energy as one tries to control the messages being sent from one point to another. However, with a lot of training, the activities become memorable and the process changes from being controlled to automatic. In such a case, automatic controlling plays a very important role and eases the work of a driver. On the other hand, psychologists who argue against automatic controlling say that it takes away the power to choose from individuals making them to engage in activities that are unproductive and even unworthy (Styles 42). In controlled processing, directed attention comes into play. Here an individual uses a mental resource to manage his thoughts by suppressing one response while allowing the required response to prevail. Styles (45) expounds that this capability gives way for the management of thoughts by human beings through a voluntary process. Through this individuals can learn to engage in productive activities and even stay cohesively with other people by avoiding conflicts. This can be done through the inhibition of certain undesirable features within the immediate environment or internal distractions, and focusing on less prominent but valued ventures. Controlled processing allows numerous pro-social as well as pro-environmental behaviors. Its employment permits one to pursue long-term essential goals in spite of availability of interesting but unworthy opportunities (Mcleod 661). In other words, controlled processing helps us to weigh between available options and finally settle on the most rewarding opportunity. Discussion of the Stroop effect The Stroop effect tries to explain what happens within the brain when the brain encounters conflicting information. Simons and Levin (645) assert that the brain’s reaction in such a case is to slow down and allow proper processing to take place. Due to the interference created, a processing delay occurs as incompatible parts of the brain are being forced to work together to produce an expected end. The Stroop effect was put forth by a psychologist known as J. R. Stroop in 1935 though it had earlier been studied by other researchers. In this experiment, Stroop sought to find out how long it will take an individual to read the names of a color in comparison to saying the color those names are printed in (Styles 64). To do this, names of various colors were printed in other colors, for instance red was printed in the green ink, yellow in the blue ink, green in purple ink and so on. At first the participants in the experiment were required to read the words and time taken to do so was recorded. The second activity required from the participants was to mention the color used in printing the names (Lund 115). In the first task, people did that activity which much ease and very fast as compared to the second task where people made mistakes and did it very slowly. Stroop then explained that in the second case, the brain is presented with conflicting information. The brain in the first instance on looking at the word it reads it automatically without much struggle, but since you are telling it to do something else a controlled processing has to take place. Simons and Levin (648) suggest that from the experiment, Stroop argued that reading the written word is more of an automatic process while conceptualizing the color of the printed word needs a controlled process. Stroop further explained that during this test the frontal lobe of the brain engages the two cortexes in making a decision: the anterior cingulated and the dorsolateral prefrontal (Mcleod 662). The latter is involved in memory retention and organization alongside recognizing errors and conflict resolution which is done by both the cortexes. During the second task, the two cortexes are expected to work simultaneously and as first as possible. This proves impossible hence, slowing down the process. The theory of speed processing can also be used to explain the Stroop effect. This theory states that the brain reading capacity is much faster as compared to color recognition and this explains the slowed process in the second test. Another explanation is given by the theory of selective attention which emphasize that more attention is required in color recognition, unlike the case with reading words (Simons and Levin 648). All in all, this explains why an individual can read and memorize a whole sentence of words. For color however, you have to concentrate and say it before moving on to the next one. To give further explanations on the Stroop effect, the parallel distributed processing theory came also into play (Styles 65). This model suggests that different biological impulses are sent to target organs using specific pathways, at different speed and strength. In this case, the impulse of reading words seems to outdo the impulse of color recognition in both strength and speed. Consequently, since these two impulses are activated simultaneously in the Stroop effect, the impulse of reading words is likely to prevail. By trying to recognize color in the first instance, interference will occur which will force you to direct your attention in order to do so, taking a bit longer. Directed attention has been found to be a scarce and limited mental resource which can be subjected to fatigue easily if used constantly. Lund (124) explains that when directed attention is fatigued, an individual is likely to experience irritability, distractibility and impatience which may result in the making of wrong decisions. In conclusion, the Stroop effect can be used in many ways, one is to measure the effectiveness of an individual’s selective attention. According to Mcleod (666), it can measure the executive processing of a person; this refers to how successful one section of the brain can be in managing the other brain sections. It was found that though the second test required longer time to master the color before saying it, the time taken to do so vary from one individual to the other. From this analysis, Stroop proposed that this test can act as a tool for screening people’s minds and coming up with a diagnosis of certain mental disorders such as ADHD, dementia and Schizophrenia. For instance, people suffering from schizophrenia face a very difficult time in trying to recognize the colors in this test (Simons and Levin 649). This is simply because such individual’s brains cannot filter and focus the necessary information effectively. Works Cited Lund, Nick. Attention and pattern Recognition. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print. Mcleod, Peter. A dual task response modality effect: Support for multiprocessor models of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1977, 29(4), 651-667. Simons, Daniel and Levin, Daniel. Failure to Detect Changes to People during a Real-world Interaction. Psychometric Bulletin and Review, 1998, 5(4), 644-649. Styles, Elizabeth. The Psychology of Attention. London: The Psychology Press, 2006. Print. Read More