Thomas+C

=The Stroop Effect vs. El Stroop Efecto= toc

Goals:
 The goals of my experiment were to look into the effects of the Stroop Test in a new light, and to find out more about our brains and the way we make decisions. Around campus several different people will be given this test, and their results will be recorded. There are many different famously researched topics that use this test. Some of these tests include comparing girls and boys, younger people and older, more well read people, artists and non-artists, lefties and righties, and the list continues (2, 3). But what this experiment will be testing is how subjects would do in English verse a language they have been taking in school for about one to four years—Spanish. Also in both languages the Stroop effect will be tested through both reading and color identifying to see if there is any effect on the reading and if so how much less it will be than the color identifying. There will be four tests for the English test, and six in the Spanish each of which will be explained in the Procedure.

These are all of the tests given to the subjects: English testing (four tests):

For Test 1 give the subject Sheet 1 and tell him to simply read the words. For Test 2 give the subject Sheet 2 and tell him to identify every color block. For Test 3 give the subject Sheet 3 and tell him to read the words while ignoring the altering ink colors. For Test 4 give the subject Sheet 3 and tell him to identify the ink color of every word while ignoring the written words. After recording all of the results thank the subject for his time.

Spanish testing (six tests):

For Test 1 give the subject Sheet 4 and tell him to read (not translate) the words. For Test 2 give the subject Sheet 2 and tell him to identify the every color block in Spanish. For Test 3 give the subject Sheet 5 and tell him to read the words ignoring the altering ink colors. For Test 4 give the subject Sheet 5 and tell him to identify the ink color of every word in Spanish while ignoring the written words. For Test 5 give the subject Sheet 5 and tell him to identify the ink color of every word in English while ignoring the written words. For Test 6 give the subject Sheet 2 and tell him to identify the colors in English. After recording all of the results thank the subject for his time.

There were four predictions:
 * 1)  The subjects will do better on Test 1 than Test 2 for both English and Spanish because they have been trained to read more often then they have to identify colors.
 * 2)  There will be no change between Test 1 and Test 3 for both English and Spanish because reading is quicker and more automatic than color identification. So, there will be no interference.
 * 3)  There will be a percentage change between Test 2 and Test 4 in Spanish because of the interfering words, but the percentage change will be smaller than that of English Test 2 and Test 4 because the subjects recognize English words more automatically than Spanish ones. So, the subjects taking the Spanish Test 4 will experience less interference.
 * 4)  From Spanish Test 6 to Spanish Test 5 there will be no interference. This is because the Spanish words will not create any interference when the subject is asked to identify the ink colors in English.

Discoveries:
 This experiment demonstrated many predictions about the causes of Stroop Effect, but the findings also went against a few of the commonly accepted predictions, and are very surprising. Of the four predictions only two were completely right. The first prediction stated that the subjects would be able to read faster than they can identify colors in both English and Spanish. This prediction pertains to the first two tests of both English and Spanish. The data proved this prediction correct. But the data also showed something that had not been thought of before the experiment: the difference between Test 1 and Test 2 in Spanish was much greater than the difference in English. The percent difference in English was 23.17% while in Spanish it was more than double that—47.26%. This difference happens because in the Spanish reading, the subject doesn’t even need to know Spanish to read—it’s the same as reading English. But for the color identifications, because the subjects’ first language is English, he first sees a red block as “red” and then he translates it into Spanish and says “rojo.”

 The second prediction states that there would be no time difference between reading all black ink colors and reading colors written in different ink colors (Test 1 vs. Test 3). While this was true for Spanish, in which the percentage increase from Test 1 to Test 3 was merely 1.28%, there was interference in the English testing. In English there was a 10.76% increase from Test 1 to Test 3. This is not nearly as strong as the interference when identifying colors (from Test 2 to Test 4), which had a 44.89% increase, but it was a very interesting discovery.

 The third prediction states that there would be interference between Test 2 and Test 4 in Spanish, but it would be drastically smaller than the interference between those tests in English. The data represents this prediction indisputably. In Spanish the percentage difference between Tests 2 and 4 was 11.86%. In English the percentage difference between those tests was 44.89%, which does not match up to what John Stroop got when he conducted the experiment (76%), but is still nearly four times the difference of the Spanish test.

 The fourth and final prediction stated that when asked to identify the ink color in English the subjects would be able to completely ignore the misleading Spanish words, and the test time would be the same as identifying blocked colors in English. This involves Spanish Test 5 and Test 6. What was discovered was very interesting and demonstrated how well the Stroop Effect works. The prediction was proven wrong. The Spanish words interfered with the subject asked to identify the ink colors in English. Most of these students had only taken Spanish for two or three years, so it was amazing that the interference from Test 6 to Test 5 was 9.88%.

Challenges:

 * Finding enough willing subjects (especially for the Spanish testing)
 * Finding enough time to do the testing
 * Picking a topic I am interested in
 * Keeping all of the information organized
 * Collecting enough information
 * Meeting the deadlines for rough drafts
 * Citing my sources correctly

Solutions:

 * Mapping out my time for testing by keeping some free blocks open each day
 * Keep a separate folder for everything from the project
 * Having a genuine interest in my topic and asking lots of questions about it
 * Printing out every source I used so that I can easily find where my information came from

Looking Back:
Looking back I wish I had picked my topic earlier and had started my research and testing earlier. Also I wish I had turned in more for my rough drafts so I could have had more feedback on it. Otherwise I really enjoyed this project and I became really interested in my topic. I learned a lot—both about doing a project like this and about the Stroop Effect.

5 Tips For Doing The Bio Project:

 * 1) Pick your topic early and spend a lot of time researching many topics so you pick one you enjoy—I changed topics and it made it hard to collect the information in time
 * 2) Map out time to do your testing and research, and always know all of the requirements for the project
 * 3) Have fun doing the testing so it does not seem like so much work
 * 4) All your writing must be cited, so cite your sources as you do the writing—that way you will not end up having to go back through your sources to cite your information
 * 5) Practice your presentation beforehand so you are more relaxed, confident, and know your information well. Also add an fun demonstration of your topic in your presentation to keep everyone interested