Objective- To understand the phenomenon of selective attention through stroop task.

Introduction

Attention- “ Attention is the behavioural and cognitive process of selectively concentrating

on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while

ignoring other perceivable information.”

"Attention is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what

may seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. It implies withdrawal

from some things in order to deal effectively with others."( William James ,The Principles of

Psychology,1890)

“Attention is the process of directing cognitive resources towards certain aspects of the

environment, or towards the execution of certain actions that seem most appropriate. It refers

to the state of observation and alertness that allows awareness of what is happening in the

environment”(Ballesteros,2000)

Attention is a basic component of our biology, present even at birth. Our orienting reflexes

help us determine which events in our environment need to be attended to, a process that aids

in our ability to survive. Newborns attend to environmental stimuli such as loud noises. A

touch against the cheek triggers the rooting reflex, causing the infant to turn his or her head to

nurse and receive nourishment. These orienting reflexes continue to benefit us throughout life

.Attention plays a critical role in almost every area of life including school, work, and

relationships. It allows people to focus on information in order to create memories. It also

allows people to avoid distractions so that they can focus on and complete specific tasks.

There has been a tremendous amount of research looking at exactly how many things we can
attend to and for how long. Key variables that impact our ability to stay on task include how

interested we are in the stimulus and how many distractions there are.

Factors affecting attention-

External Factor or Object-

Size-It is natural that unusual size (very big or very small) to attract our attention compared to

normal size.

Movement of stimuli -Moving things draws our attention more than stationary ones. Ex1-

slightly moving teacher draws students attention more that unmoving teacher.Ex2, movable

advertisement

Contrast-Anything that is different from its surrounding is contrast. Ex1- a word or a sentence

that is written in a different colour or font from other information in the slide attract students

attention more than the rest information.

Repetition-If a thing, person, or event is repeated several times, then our attention drawn to it.

Ex1, when an advertisement is repeated on the walls or in T.V., then our attention will be

drawn to it. Ex2, when a teacher repeats certain information, this repetition draws students

attention.

Duration-Attention is drawn to a thing that lasts longer. Ex1, the disaster warning siren. Ex2,

car horns to avoid accident.

Novelty-Newness attracts quickly than traditional one.Ex, a new teacher attracts the children

very much in the school.

Internal Factors or Subjective Factors

Interest-Humans are interested in some things and disinterested in other things. Interesting

things draws our attention soon. Ex, an engineer and a nurse is walking down a road. The

engineer is attracted to building; while, the nurse is attracted to the medical equipment shops.
Desire- A person’s desire becomes a cause of paying attention to a thing. Ex, the student who

have a desire to be a math teacher in future, he/she pay attention to math problems more that

other students.

Motive-Basic motives are important in drawing attention. Human motives like hungry, thirst,

sex, safety, etc., play a vital role in drawing attention. Ex, a thirst person attention always on

where water is available.

Aim/Goal-Every individual has an ultimate goal. The immediate aim of a student is to pass in

the examination while his ultimate goal may be to become a nurse. The student, whose goal is

to pass the examination, will be concerned with textbooks or note, etc.

Past experiences -If we know by our past experience that a particular person is sincere to us,

we shall pay attention to whatever he advises us.

Kinds of attention-

Sustained attention Are you someone who can work at one task for a long time? If you are,

you are good at using sustained attention. This happens when we can concentrate on a task,

event, or feature in our environment for a prolonged period of time. Think about people you

have watched who spend a lot of time working on a project, like painting or even listening

intently to another share their story. Sustained attention is also commonly referred to as one's

attention span. It takes place when we can continually focus on one thing happening, rather

than losing focus and having to keep bringing it back. People can get better at sustained

attention as they practice it.

Divided attention Do you ever do two things at once? If you're like most people, you do that a

lot. Maybe you talk to a friend on the phone while you're straightening up the house.

Nowadays, there are people everywhere texting on their phones while they're spending time
with someone. When we are paying attention to two things at once, we are using divided

attention. Some instances of divided attention are easier to manage than others. For example,

straightening up the home while talking on the phone may not be hard if there's not much of a

mess to focus on. Texting while you are trying to talk to someone in front of you, however, is

much more difficult. Both age and the degree to which you are accustomed to dividing your

attention make a difference in how adept at it you are.

Executive attention Do you feel able to focus intently enough to create goals and monitor

your progress? If you are inclined to do these things, you are displaying executive attention.

Executive attention is particularly good at blocking out unimportant features of the

environment and attending to what really matters. It is the attention we use when we are

making steps toward a particular end. For example, maybe you need to finish a research

project by the end of the day. You might start by making a plan, or you might jump into it

and attack different parts of it as they come. You keep track of what you've done, what more

you have to do, and how you the goal of a finished research paper. That is using your

executive attention.

Selective attention Have you ever been at a loud concert or a busy restaurant, and you are

trying to listen to the person you are with? While it can be hard to hear every word, you can

usually pick up most of the conversation if you're trying hard enough. This is because you are

choosing to focus on this one person's voice, as opposed to say, the people speaking around

you. Selective attention takes place when we block out certain features of our environment

and focus on one particular feature, like the conversation you are having with your friend.

Signal detection theory- Signal detection theory (SDT) is a technique that can be used to

evaluate sensitivity in decision-making. Initially developed by radar researchers in the early

1950s (Peterson et al., 1954), the value of SDT was quickly recognized by cognitive
scientists and adapted for application in human decision-making (Tanner and Swets, 1954;

Green and Swets, 1966). The general premise of SDT is that decisions are made against a

background of uncertainty, and the goal of the decision-maker is to tease out the decision

signal from background noise. SDT can be applied to any binary decision-making situation

where the response of the decision maker can be compared to the actual presence or absence

of the target. The advantage of SDT as a measure of decision-making is that it provides a

unitless measure of sensitivity, regardless of subject bias, that can be compared to other

sensitivities over widely different situations.

The basic premise behind SDT is that both signal and noise are represented

probabilistically within the decision-maker, and the extent to which those representations

overlap can be estimated based on the decision-maker's responses and whether or not the

signal is present . The decision-maker bases their decision relative to their criterion (β), where

a signal will be reported present when the internal signal is stronger than β and absent when

the internal signal is weaker than β. A hit represents the probability that the subject reports

the signal present when it is and a false alarm represents the probability that the subject

reports the signal present when it is absent. Alternatively, a miss represents the probability

that the subject reports the signal absent when it is present and a correct rejection represents

the probability that the subject reports the signal absent when it is absent. All response

probabilities are reflected as a part of the area underneath a normal curve. If the probability of

each response type is therefore known, both the signal and the noise distributions can be

estimated based on simple statistical principles.

Selective attention- involves being able to choose and selectively attend to certain stimuli in

the environment while at the same time tuning other things out.4 For example, you might

selectively attend to a book you are reading while tuning out the sound of your next-door
neighbour's car alarm going off. This type of attention requires you to be able to tune out

extraneous external stimuli, but also internal distractions such as thoughts and emotions in

order to stay selectively attuned to a task.

Factors affecting selective attention-

External factors- these are features of stimuli such as size, intensity, shape etc.

Internal factors- these are present within the individual and can be divided into motivation

factors and cognitive factors.

Motivational factors represents our biological and social needs instances of the same

are the drivers strictly following all the traffic rule.

Cognitive factors represents the interests, attitudes and preparatory set. For instances

an average teenager would be more interested in watching a cricket match than reading a

novel.

Theories of selective attention-

Broadbent's Filter Model-

Broadbent (1958) proposed that physical characteristics of messages are used to select

one message for further processing and that all others are lost Information from all of the

stimuli presented at any given time enters an unlimited capacity sensory buffer. One of the

inputs is then selected on the basis of its physical characteristics for further processing by

being allowed to pass through a filter .Because we have only a limited capacity to process

information, this filter is designed to prevent the information processing model from

becoming overloaded. The inputs not initially selected by the filter remain briefly in the

sensory buffer store, and if they are not processed they decay rapidly.  Broadbent assumed

that the filter rejected the unattended message at an early stage of processing.According to

Broadbent the meaning of any of the messages is not taken into account all by the filter.  All
semantic processing is carried out after the filter has selected the message to pay attention to.

So whichever message(s) restricted by the bottleneck (i.e. not selective) is not understood.

Dichotic Listening Task-

The dichotic listening tasks involves simultaneously sending one message (a 3-digit number)

to a person's right ear and a different message (a different 3-digit number) to their left

participants were asked to listen to both messages at the same time and repeat what they

heard.  This is known as a 'dichotic listening task'.

Broadbent was interested in how these would be repeated back. Would the participant repeat

the digits back in the order that they were heard (order of presentation), or repeat back what

was heard in one ear followed by the other ear (ear-by-ear).He actually found that people

made fewer mistakes repeating back ear by ear and would usually repeat back this way.

Treisman's Attenuation Model-

Treisman (1964) agrees with Broadbent's theory of an early bottleneck filter. However, the

difference is that Treisman's filter attenuates rather than eliminates the unattended

material.Attenuation is like turning down the volume so that if you have 4 sources of sound

in one room (TV, radio, people talking, baby crying) you can turn down or attenuate 3 in

order to attend to the fourth.This means that people can still process the meaning of the

attended message(s). In her experiments, Treisman demonstrated that participants were still

able to identify the contents of an unattended message, indicating that they were able to

process the meaning of both the attended and unattended messages.

Stroop phenomenon- The Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) is a neuropsychological test

extensively used for both experimental and clinical purposes. It assesses the ability to inhibit
cognitive interference, which occurs when the processing of a stimulus feature affects the

simultaneous processing of another attribute of the same stimulus (Stroop, 1935). 

Factors affecting Stroop Effect

Age - Young adults were easily able to do the stroop test as compared to small children and

old age people.

Practice - A well-versed person with good command in English language was able to do the

task more easily as compared to amateur with less practice of english language.

Colour facility- people with colour blindness and weak eyesight found it hard to do the task

as compared to people with perfect eyesight.

Variations of stroop effect

Directional Stroop Effect Experiment - an example of this is if the word “right” was

presented on the left-hand side of a screen and the participants were asked to locate the

position of the word whilst ignoring its content.

Number Stroop Effect Experiment – In this experiment, the participant has to say the number

of times the word has been written. For example, if the word cat has been written 3 times, the

participant must say “3” instead of “cat” 3 times.

Animal Stroop Effect Experiment – In this experiment, the participant is required to look at

the picture of an animal and say the name of the animal. They must not read the word placed

on the picture.

Applications of stroop test

Stroop effect has many practical applications. It can be used to assess the level of attention

deficit, mental functionality in a person. Thus, it can be used to monitor the cognitive abilities
of a person suffering from various psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or

major depression. It can have particular value in assessing attention and mental processing

speed in neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s, or even age-related decline

of mental capabilities. Compromised attention and mental abilities are not only found in

neuro or psychiatric disorders. Thus, usage of Stroop effect may help to understand the

mental skills in various other somatic disease conditions.

Researchers also use the stroop effect during brain imaging studies to investigate regions of

the brain that are involved in planning, decision-making, and managing real-world

interference (e.g., Texting and driving). An increased interference effect is found in brain

damage, dementias and other neurodegenerative diseases, attention-deficit hyperactivity

disorder, or a variety of mental disorders such as schizophrenia. Executive function, as

measured by the stroop test, declines with age and that the decline is more pronounced in

people with a low level of education. The gender differences in stroop colour and

interference, men were consistently slower than women. Differences may be ascribed to

greater verbal and fine motor abilities of women and greater spatial ability of men.

Hypothesis- comparison to congruent conditions the participants will take more or longer

reaction time in response to incongruent conditions.

Method

Participant- Name – Janvi Gautam

Age – 22

Gender – Female

Education Qualification– Undergraduate

Design –

Independent variable - colours of the words

Dependent variable - reaction time

Controlled variable - exposure time 45 secs; length of the word list: 50 items; no. of lists:

3; 4 Colour types: red, blue, green, and yellow; 4 words: red, blue, green, and yellow

Materials- Laptop

Notebook

Link

Paper

Pencil

Procedure –

The experiment was conducted in a well-lit room using a laptop. He was seated in front of

the screen and ensured to be comfortable and relaxed. Rapport was established and further

made comfortable. They were asked to consent for participating in this experiment. Then the

instructions were given for the Stroop task. He was told that he would be performing a

response time task that demanded attention, and that he was to name the colours of stimuli to

be displayed on the screen. During the task their behaviour was observed. After the task was

completed, they were debriefed , informed their data will be confidential , the data was

downloaded and the participant was thanked for their time and participation and asked to

leave.

Instructions –
“As part of the practicum, you would be required to respond to words shown on the screen.

You have to respond to the colour of the letters ignoring the word. You have to press r for

red, y for yellow, g for green and b for blue. You have to respond as quickly as possible. We

will have this session in two parts. You will see alternate sides of words and a star image.

You have to respond to only colour of letter by presenting the matching key. You don’t have

to respond to the star. If you have any doubts, feel free to ask them now”

Conduction-

After the participant was instructed and all their doubts were cleared, the test began. The

participant was asked to click on start. The participant ignored the star as per instructions and

moved on to the words. They chose the option which seemed right to them as fast as possible.

After the congruent words were completed, the test proceeded to the incongruent part. The

participant once again chose the option which seemed right to them as fast as possible.

Precautions-

1. There should be no noise and disturbance in the room at the time of conduction.

2. The conduction should be done in a well illuminated and ventilated room.

3. The internet connection should be stable and checked beforehand the conduction

starts.

4. The subject should be given a comfortable space for doing the task .

Introspective Report-

It was a fun experiment and something very different. I was curious to know what will

happen next as I read along the words. I liked being a part of this experiment as it was fun
and informative. It was a little confusing at first but then after 1st list I understood it and did

the rest of it clearly. The time limit of 45 seconds made me a little nervous.

Behavioural Observation-

The participants seemed to be nervous at the onset of the experiment. But after the rapport

was formed, they seemed much more confident. At the end of the experiment, they were

excited to know more about the experiment and their results.

Scoring-

Congruent and incongruent reaction time was arranged in two rows. For reducing calculation

errors, the unit of reaction time was changed from mili seconds to seconds by dividing the

raw scores with 1000. The average of incongruent and congruent reaction time was

calculated. The data – analysis tab was set up in MS Excel. By selecting the (T-test: Paired

Two Sample for Means) option from the tab, required data was selected and hence it showed

the mean, variance, observations, Pearson correlation, degree of freedom or df, t stat. The

Auto-sum tab was selected from the file section and by selecting the standard deviation tab

the data was set up and the values were produced appropriately.

Result

Individual data -

Table1:
 N M SD

Congruent 1 2.55 0.989949

Incongruent 1 2.055 0.770746

Table 1 represents that mean reaction time and standard deviation for congruent condition are

2.55 and 0.989949 respectively .Also, mean reaction time and standard deviation of

participant for incongruent condition are 2.055and 0.770746 respectively.

Table2:

Mean SD T score df Significance

Congruent 2.55 0.989949 0.38 19 0.3498

Incongruent 2.055 0.770746 0.38 19 0.3498

Table no. 2 represents that mean reaction time and standard deviation of participant for

congruent condition are 2.55 and 0.989949 respectively. The t-score is 0.38 , degree of

freedom is 19 and 0.432608672 significance is of participant for congruent condition .Also,

the mean reaction time and standard deviation of participant for incongruent condition are

2.055 and 0.770746 respectively. The t-score is 0.38, degree of freedom is 19 and

significance is of participant for incongruent condition. The value being more than 0.05

therefore our result is not significant.

Group data-

Table 3:

N M SD

Congruent 37 1.66653 0.7356

Incongruent 37 1.7269 0.4581

Table no. 3 represents that mean reaction time and standard deviation for congruent condition

are 1.66653 and 0.7356 respectively .Also, mean reaction time and standard deviation of

participants for incongruent condition are 1.7269 and 0.4581 respectively.

Table 4:

Mean SD T score df Significance

Congruent 1.66653 0.7356 -0.709 36 0.241

Incongruent 1.7269 0.4581 -0.709 36 0.241

Table no. 4 represents that mean reaction time and standard deviation of participants for

congruent condition are 1.66653 and 0.7356 respectively. The t-score is -0.709, degree of

freedom is 36 and significance is 0.241 of participant for congruent condition. Also, the

mean reaction time and standard deviation of participants for incongruent condition are

1.7269 and0.4581 respectively. The t-score is -0.709, degree of freedom is 36 and

significance is 0.241 of participant for incongruent condition. The value being more than

0.05 therefore our result is not significant.

Discussion-

The objective of the experiment was to understand the phenomenon of selective attention

through stroop task.

Selective attention is the ability to select from the many factors or stimuli and focus to only

on that you prefer or your brain selects. The Stroop effect refers to a delay in reaction times

between congruent and incongruent stimuli. It is the delay in reaction time between automatic

and controlled processing of information, in which the names of words interfere with the

ability to name the colour of ink used to print the words.

As mentioned in table 1, the mean reaction time of congruent condition is higher than the

mean reaction time of incongruent condition. The participant took 2.55 secs for congruent

condition and 2.055 secs for incongruent condition.

As mentioned in table 2, the standard deviation ,t-score , degree of freedom and significance

of participant for congruent condition are 0.38, 19 and 0.3498 respectively. The standard

deviation, t-score , degree of freedom and significance of participant for incongruent

condition are 0.770746 ,0.38, 19 and 0.3498 respectively. The score being more than 0.05

represents that our result is not significant.

As mentioned in table 3, the mean reaction time of congruent condition is lower than the

mean reaction time of incongruent condition.

As mentioned in table 4, the standard deviation,t-score , degree of freedom and significance

of participants for congruent condition are 0.7356, -0.709,36, 0.241 respectively. The

standard deviation,t-score , degree of freedom and significance of participants for

incongruent condition are 0.4581, -0.709,36, 0.241 respectively. The score being more than

0.05 represents that our result is not significant.

Even though the mean is showing variance for conditions, the results are statistically

insignificant for both individual and group data.

Conclusion-

The aim of the present study was to understand the stroop effect. The result suggested that the

average reaction time was greater for congruent condition as compared to incongruent

condition. Thus ,our hypothesis "In comparison to the congruent condition, the participant

will take longer reaction time in responding to incongruent condition." is rejected.

Reference-
Ciccarelli , S.K. & White, J.N. (2018). Psychology (5th ed.). Pearson India Education

Services Pvt Ltd.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/memory

McLeod, S. A. (2018, October 24). Selective attention. Simply Psychology.

www .simplypsychology.org/attention-models.html

Okamoto,H. (2017, July) Sustained Attention in Real Classroom Setting,frontiers in Human

Neuroscience. frontiers in.org

 STROOP EFFECT

PALAK GAUTAM
20211624