The Classic Stroop Asymmetry in Online Experiments
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: In a traditional Stroop (1935) task, participants view target words written in colors that are either congruent with their meaning (e.g., “Red” written in red ink) or incongruent (e.g., “Red” written in green). When participants identify the target color, the response time difference between congruent and incongruent targets (i.e., Stroop effect) is typically much larger than when participants identify the target word (i.e., reverse Stroop effect); this is the classic Stroop asymmetry. Recent work has shown that recasting the task so participants localize the target rather than identify it inverts the asymmetry: the Stroop effect is smaller than the reverse Stroop effect. We developed online identification and localization scripts in an attempt to replicate the classic Stroop asymmetry and this recent twist on the classic asymmetry. In Experiment 1, a sample of undergraduate students replicated the classic Stroop asymmetry with an identification task and its inversion with a localization task, p < .001, ηp2 = .17. In Experiment 2, a sample of participants who were more representative of the general population than in Experiment 1 once again replicated the classic Stroop asymmetry with an identification task and its inversion with a localization task, p < .001, ηp2 = .20. Our results combine with other recent studies to provide converging evidence that the classic Stroop asymmetry results from the strength of association between task demands (identification vs. localization) and the attended feature (verbal vs. visual).
Authors: Mary E. Smith, Micah D. Smith, Kenith V. Sobel
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4285254220