Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I'm doing a test on the Stroop Effect but cannot seem to come across as to how it is relevant to real life.

Basically what my project is about is just reading the colours of the words out loud with a few twists. Im trying to go for adding highlighted colours of the text as well as testing people whoare in a 'drowsy' condition to attempt to cancel out the effect. Im also not completely done with the testing so if you have any suggestions that would also be nice.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Extretimate,

The Stroop Effect has been extensively discussed on the Ask an Expert board. One suggestion is to put "Stroop Effect" into the Search box in the upper right corner of an Ask an Expert page.

Do any of these help?

I was unable to find any information about drowsiness and the Stroop Effect. So, if this is true, you may be breaking new science here!

Thanks for the suggestion,
but as it turns out I've already taken a look at those using the search function before actually posting this topic.
Although I'm not fully sure if this has much to do with 'real-life' situations or not, so I can't really see how it is of much relevance to real life
(which means i am still left to wonder about the question that was first posed)

Oh and i just had another question, (since I'm about to test)
how many words should one test that i hand out to a participant have? Right now, 72 words seem too much so would it be better off if I just set it to 40? or should I decrease it even more?

Thanks again

Do I know You? Andrea- is that really you?????? Wow, this is a schocker. My project is on the Stroop Effect also! Except, we have ours due this month and have been working nonstop, as our county fair will have around 200 entries. Anyways, since you probably aren't my partner, here are some sites that can help with your project. If you guys do well, tell me! I'd love to here what you did. We tested 4,000 students at a local high school(it took a week- no school) with a program we found that Nova made. That link is on here too. This is right from our bibliography, but they all work well! Ours was formatted, but here the raw format is!
Bibliography
J. Ridley Stroop. “Studies of Interference in Verbal Reactions.” Originally published in 1935. [Accessed March 2-9, 2009] http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Stroop/.
Wikipedia. “Stroop Effect.” [Accessed March 3, 2009] Unknown publish date http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect/.
EPLab. “Stroop Task; A test of Capacity to direct attention.” Dec. 14, 2007. www.snre.umich.edu/eplab/demos/st0/stroopdesc.html
Unknown author. “Neuroscience for kids; Stroop Effect.” Unknown publish date. [Accessed March 8, 2009] http://www.faculty.washington.edu/chudler/words.html
American Physiological Association. “Interference: The Stroop Effect” Unknown Publish date. [Accessed March 4-10, 2009]http://www.apa.org/science/stroop.html
NOVA. “Everest Exposure.” Unknown publish date. [Accessed March 7, 2009] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/ex ... intro.html
ADHDA. “The Stroop Test” Unknown Publish date. [Accessed March 1-7, 2009] http://www.adhd.org.nz/stroop1.html
Gary Muhonen. “Confusing Colors, Stroop Effect” Unknown publish date. [Accessed March 10, 2009] http://www.dcity.org/braingames/stroop/
Unknown Author. “Background on the Stroop Effect” Unknown Publish date. [Accessed March 8, 2009] http://www.rit.edu/cla/gssp400/sbackground.html
Unknown Author. “Stroop Effect- Interactive!” Unknown publish date. [Accessed March 8, 2009] http://www.thewritingpot.com/stroop/
Graff Industries. “The Stroop Effect.” Unknown Publish date. [Accessed March 8, 2009] http://epsych.msstate.edu/deliberate/Stroop/index.html
Unknown Author. “Research on the Stroop Effect.” Unkown publish date. [Accessed March 8, 2009] http://www.uwm.edu/~neuropsy/Strpmast.html
Andrew M. Coleman. “Stroop Effect.” 2001. [Accessed March 6-9, 2009] http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O87-Stroopeffect.html
Dave Munger. “Cognitive Daily.” February 3, 2009. [Accessed March 9, 2009] http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/ ... roop_e.php
Google. “Google Testing: ToTt Stroop” February 7, 2008. [Accessed March 6-8, 2009] http://googletesting.blogspot.com/2008/ ... ffect.html

davidkallman wrote:Hi Extretimate,

The Stroop Effect has been extensively discussed on the Ask an Expert board. One suggestion is to put "Stroop Effect" into the Search box in the upper right corner of an Ask an Expert page.

Do any of these help?

I was unable to find any information about drowsiness and the Stroop Effect. So, if this is true, you may be breaking new science here!

Sorry, I should hav posted this with my other post. I put the site on the other post that talks about this. This is my first science fair, and I am in 7th grade(so is my partner!). We asked this same question with the drowsy and found answers We discovered that when you are drowsy it becomes nearly impossible to say the color. Your brain may go through a 'dyslexia' type process, causing your answers to be wrong. The Cerebellum Cortex(or is it Cingulate Cortex? Cant remember) is the brain part that reads the COLOR and not words. It becomes stressed bcause the colors are not seeable because the eyes are partly closed. However, the Anterior Cingulate can READ the word still, and therefore overrides the C.C. Brain part.
Hope this helps!

Sorry but...
I'm afraid I don't know you (and of course that means you most likely wouldn't know me which concludes my name is not Andrea).
But i just happened to notice that you've posted again and I think its the Cingulate Cortex that does the thinking but the Cerebellum Cortex is fairly close to it so I may have gotten them messed up as well.
Anyways, thanks for the help and your time but I still have one question if it is possible for you to answer:
How is the Stroop Effect relevant to 'real-life' situations?

Thanks again!

Oh and one more thing,
You said that you used a program hosted by NOVA?
Any chance that you could give me a link to their site or you can give me a bit more information on how that works etc.?
Thanks

Hi,

If you read the wikipedia article on the Stroop Effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect), it turns out that there are all kinds of real-world applications--they use it in certain brain scan tests as well as to test for concentration effectiveness and mental disorders such as ADHD.

Thanks for the reply!
Anyways, I've forgotten all about Wikipedia and noticing this information, i can finally complete this section (the primary question practically of this topic)!
So all i have to do is finish up my rough work and I'll be completely done.

Thanks again!

Okay, so I've stumbled upon another question unfortunately and it'd be nice if i could get an answer before Tuesday.
How does the brain act when someone is undergoing through the Stroop Effect?
And would this statement be true? :
The left side of the brain deals with reading the meaning of the word and the right side deals with reading the colour of the word.

Thanks!!

Hi,

Science Buddies has a great page on how to create a scientific question. Take a look and then post back if you still have questions: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tion.shtml .

Sorry, this is late, but here's how I think the brain reacts. I'm also a student, and this is based off of the research I have done, so I might not be correct.

First, the brain automatically reads the word, sending that task to the brain. At the same time, the color of the word is being automated and sent to the brain via nerve cells. When the brain receives the messages, it has to chose which one to verbalize. The messages are sent to the anterior cingulate part of the brain where it deals with conflicting tasks and choosing what to do. Once the brain has decided that it wants to verbalize the color of the word, it is sent to the mouth and the process is now completed.

I noticed you having a discussion about what parts of the brain name the color and read the word, could you possibly send me a link that contains that information?