Questions

1. How did your subjects respond to the test?
   (Most will demonstrate confusion and slowed processing when trying to deal with conflicting messages. Often, they first say the incorrect word but quickly go back and correct themselves.)
2. Does practice improve a person's ability to identify colors?
   (Accept all reasonable answers such as it will help people identify the color sequences they have practiced, but it may not improve performance when faced with a new set of confusing words.)
3. Do you think that turning the chart upside down would affect the results?
   (Yes - When the words are upside down, you can't read them. Since you wouldn't register a meaning for the symbols, there would be no conflict and therefore your processing would not be suffer from the Stroop Effect.)
4. What strategy might help to identify the words with less difficulty?
   (Accept all reasonable answers such as Alan's trick of trying to see the letters as nonsense symbols and not elements of language)
   
   

EXTENSIONS


Gender Bias?
Do you think that the Stroop Effect equally effects males and females? Why or why not?
(Accept all reasonable answers.)
Design a test that might show the influence that gender might have on color word confusion. Once you have developed your strategy, share it with your teacher. With the instructor's permission, gather data on a group of subjects. Keep a record of how the groups organized by gender perform. Share your research conclusion with your classmates.