An experimental study of a variation of the Stroop Effect: the interaction of an automatic and controlled process and attentional processes on a colour identification task. Abstract Theories suggest that selective attention allows for only one channel of input to be semantically analysed, whilst other information is discarded. It has been stated that much of this is unconscious and automatic; and that these over learned, automatic processes can intrude on a colour identification task. This was examined in a variation of the Stroop Effect test [you need to briefly state what was actually done in the study] and results showed that ink colour identification was slower for a list of colour names than when neutral words were used. This supports that the unconscious semantic processing of words on an unattended channel was intruding upon a task of naming ink colours.
In one group, subjects were given an immediate test of recognition memory for the pictures and in other groups they searched for a target picture. Even when the target had only been specified by a title (e..g., a boat) detection of a target was strikingly superior to recognition memory. Detection was slightly but significantly better for pictured than named targets. In a third experiment pictures were presented for 50, 70, 90, or 120 msec preceded and followed by a visual mask; at 120 msec recognition memory was as accurate as detection had been. The results, taken together with those in 1969 of Potter and Levy for slower rates of sequential presentation, suggest that on the average a scene is understood and so becomes immune to ordinary visual masking within about 100 msec but requires about 300 msec of further processing before the memory representation is resistant to conceptual masking from a following picture.
This study demonstrated how dramatic events could cause a physiological imprinting of a memory of the event and that emotional events will be remembered more than non-emotional events. This study provides evidence to support anecdotal and personal experiences of flashbulb memories. However, only students were used, therefore reducing its potential in generalization. Also, the researchers only relied upon
Participants were then asked to name the ink color and their response times for each list were measured in seconds. The results showed that the stroop effect interference extended to color-related words, providing further evidence for the interference and costs of the automatic processes of attention.8/8 Introduction Although we are able to sense a huge amount of information, not all of it is processed. Through a process of selection known as attention, only some pieces of information are selected for further processing by cognitive resources. The reason why we need to reduce incoming information may be due to a limited capacity to process information. Kahneman (as cited in Edgar, 2007) explains it in the limited capacity theory of attention.
Another example of inaccuracy is “illusions occur when the perceptual processes that normally help us correctly perceive the world around us are fooled by a particular situation so that we see something that does not exist or that is incorrect” (Stangor, 2011). See figure 1: When you look into a mirror, what you see is the opposite of what is real. Your right hand appears to be your left via the reflection in the mirror. One factor contributing to the accuracy of sensory data is memory. For example, when we look at fire it does not look hot or that it can burn you, but our memory of putting your hand near the fire reminds you that fire is hot and will burn you.
Then the second list of words, which are words not corresponded with the colour and is the controlled process, these are read aloud with the errors and the time taken recorded and compared to the first set of data. These results can prove the hypothesis was supported and that controlled processes are more prone to thinking rather than just doing This experiment has had the aim of testing the effects of automatic and controlled processes in the Stroop effect. The Stroop effect demonstrates performing a controlled process task compared to an automatic process task and outlines the extended time taken to complete the task. An automatic process is a task or process that doesn’t involve much attention or effort to be performed. A controlled process does require undivided attention and an amount of mental effort is usually needed.
A significant effect was found for rotation and also for the increased time delay, meaning that short-term spatial memory performance is greater when the orientation of the stimuli is not altered and when the retention delay is only a few seconds. No significant effect was found for the interaction between both variables, meaning that there was no additive effect of rotation and retention delay on participants’ performance. Introduction: The focus of the study was on spatial memory, and how egocentric and allocentric representations function to support spatial memory recall. Spatial memory refers to the process of a person retaining information on their environment and its spatial orientation. O’keefe & Nadel (1978) highlight the importance of this type of memory, and how simple everyday tasks depend on it, “Space plays a role in all our behaviour.
Insight -> frontal lobe activity involved in focusing attention and was accompanied by a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe * When the “eureka moment” hits us, we feel satisfied. OBSTACLES TO PROBLEM SOLVING * Two cognitive tendencies: confirmation bias and fixation- often lead us astray * We seek evidence verifying our ideas more eagerly than we seek evidence that we might refute them-> confirmation bias (major obstacle to problem solving) * 2-4-6 test: formed a wrong idea and searched for a wrong evidence * “ordinary ppl evade facts, become inconsistent, or systematically defend themselves against the threat of new info relevant to the issue”. * Fixation: inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective * Two examples: mental set & functional fixedness * Mental set: predisposes how we think (tendency to approach a problem with the mind-set of what has worked previously for us” * Sometimes, a mental set based on what worked in the past precludes our finding a new solution to a new
Findings from neuropsychological studies support the view that the capacities for retaining the two types of information are separable. These studies have demonstrated existence of normal phonological, but disrupted semantic effect on short-term memory tasks, and vice versa (Hanten & Martin, 2000; Martin & Saffran, 1997; Patterson, Graham & Hodges, 1994). Collette et al. (2001) carried out a positron emission tomography (PET) study contrasting brain regions activated during serial recall of word vs. non-word lists in which the lists were composed of either one or three items. Combining across the word and non-word lists, greater activation was seen for the three items compared to one item memory load condition in the left medial frontal area, the anterior cingulate gyrus, the left thalamus and the left insula.
Their findings show that the outcome was that people were better at recalling the words both at the beginning and the end of the list more easily than those in the middle. This related well to the Atkinson and Shiffrin model, where the words at the beginning would have gone into the LTM loop and words at the end of the list into the STM loop for rehearsal. They explained that that counting backwards displaced the last few words from the fragile STM but not affected the first few words as these were rehearsed. The recency effect disappears with a distractor task but not the primary effect suggests the two effects are the result of different memory stores. Brenda Miller made a study on a young man, HM, who had his hippocampus and parts of his temporal lobes removed.