Automatic Processing: The Stroop Effect

Introduction
The Stroop Effect, named after John Ridley Stroop, is a phenomenon most know for reading the color that the word is written in, but not the actual word (See figure 1). According to Stroop, “it demonstrates the interference of working memory and the reaction time of a task, often used to illustrate the nature of automatic processing versus conscious visual control” (Stroop, 1935). John Stroop first published his findings in 1935 based on 3 experimental research theories (See figure 2). His first theory compared reading a list of words in black ink while reading the same list of words in different colors. The results showed that there was little to no interference and time difference in the time it took subjects to read both list (Stroop, 1935). He then compared naming the colors …show more content…
Each of his experiments showed that most people are very automatic, like autopilot, when they are reading. However, Stroop demonstrated that when the brain was instructed to do the opposite and pay more attention to the color of the word, it struggled. For his participants, they had to adjust their responses to complete the new task, as it was not familiar to them, like reading is. This is how Stroop demonstrated the phenomena we call “interference.” “Interference occurs in learning when there is an interaction between the new material and transferred effects of past learned behavior, memories or thoughts that have a negative influence in comprehending the new material” (Dogs, 2017). As a result, his experiments showed that there is less interference with automatic task that have become a part of our working memory, “the part of short-term memory that is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual (sensory experiences) and linguistic processing (natural language processing),” (McLeod, 2012) whereas, naming the color of the word takes much more concentration for us to recognize and recall. Interference with our working memory has been researched through many