Abstract
Eight experiments are reported that examine the contextual factors that influence the magnitude of color-word interference in the Stroop task. In Part 1 of the paper (Experiments 1–4) we varied letter-letter grouping using Gestalt principles of proximity and similarity. In Part 2 of the paper (Experiments 5–8) we varied word-color grouping using the Gestalt principles of similarity and common fate. The magnitude of the Stroop effect was strongly influenced by changes in both letter-letter grouping in the color-word and word-color grouping. Overall, the results suggest two ways in which perceptual organization influences the magnitude of Stroop color-word interference and more generally, that there are systematic principles that govern the impact of visually presented words across a variety of laboratory contexts and the real world.
References
1997). Processing in the Stroop task: Mental set as a determinant of performance. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 51, 61–68.
(1992). Visual parsing and response competition: The effect of grouping factors. Perception and Psychophysics, 51, 145–162.
(2001). The myth of ballistic processing: Evidence from Stroop’s paradigm. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 324–330.
(2005). Spatial attention as a necessary preliminary to early processes in reading. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 99–108.
(1999). What kind of attention modulates the Stroop effect?. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 6, 99–104.
(1997). The Stroop effect and the myth of automaticity. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 4, 221–225.
(2001). The Stroop effect and single letter coloring: What replicates and what doesn’t. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 858.
(1996). Attentional selection and word processing in Stroop and word search tasks: The role of selection for action. American Journal of Psychology, 109, 265–286.
(2002). Visual attention and word recognition in Stroop color naming: Is word recognition “automatic”?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 220–240.
(2002). Automaticity in reading and the Stroop task: Testing the limits of involuntary word processing. American Journal of Psychology, 115, 515–543.
(1995). Automaticity and word perception: Evidence from Stroop and Stroop dilution effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 1395–1411.
(2002). Stroop interference effects in partially colored Stroop words. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 536–541.
(1989). Movement and visual attention: The spotlight metaphor breaks down. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 15, 448–456.
(1971). The duration of word meaning responses: Stroop interference for different preexposures of the word. Psychonomic Science, 25, 229–331.
(1973). Interference and facilitation for color naming with separate bilateral presentations of the word and color. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 99, 314–317.
(1973). Stroop interference with successive presentations of separate incongruent words and colors. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 98, 438–439.
(1978). Failure of spatial selectivity in vision. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 11, 181–184.
(1982). Time course analysis of the Stroop phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 8, 875–894.
(2003). The PIG in spring: Evidence on letter grouping from the reading of buried words. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10, 939–946.
(1983). Tests of automaticity of reading: Dilution of the Stroop effects by color-irrelevant stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 9, 497–509.
(1981). Perceptual organization and attention. In , Perceptual organization and attention (pp. 181–211). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(1998). Uniform connectedness and grouping in the perceptual organization of hierarchical patterns. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 1105–1118.
(1991). Perceptual organization and focused attention: The role of objects and proximity in visual processing. Perception and Psychophysics, 50, 267–284.
(1995). Reducing color-colorinterference by optimizing selection-for-action. Psychological Research, 57, 119–130.
(2001). A paradoxical exposure-duration effect in the Stroop task: Temporal segregation between stimulus attributes facilitates selection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27, 622–632.
(2007). Role of Gestalt grouping in selective attention: Evidence from the Stroop task. Perception and Psychophysics, 69, 1305–1314.
(1982). Selective and divided attention in a Stroop task. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 36, 684–700.
(1991). Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 163–203.
(1997). Disruption to word or letter processing? The origins of case-mixing effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 23, 1275–1286.
(1993). Selective attention to Stroop dimensions: Effects of baseline discriminability, response mode, and practice. Memory & Cognition, 21, 627–645.
(1986). How automatic is Stroop interference? (Rep. No. 109/1986). Bielefeld, Germany: University of Bielefeld.
(1999). Vision science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
(1980). Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3–25.
(1989). The psychology of reading. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
(2005). Contextual control over lexical and sublexical routines when reading English aloud. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 113–118.
(2005). Basic processes in reading: A critical review of pseudohomophone effects in reading aloud and a new computational account. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 622–646.
(2005). Basic processes in reading: Is visual word recognition obligatory?. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 119–124.
(2005). Stroop dilution revisited: Evidence for domain-specific, limited-capacity processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 31, 3–13.
(2002). E-prime reference guide. Psychology Software Tools.
(2000). Stroop and Garner effects in and out of Posner’s beam: Reconciling two conceptions of selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 997–1017.
(2006). Cognitive ethology and exploring attention in real-world scenes. Brain Research, 1080, 101–119.
(1999). The myth of automatic semantic activation in reading. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 61–64.
(1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643–662.
(1923). Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt, II. Psychologische Forschung, 4, 301–350.
(2003). Object-based attentional selection can modulate the Stroop effect. Memory & Cognition, 31, 983–994.
(2005). Depth cues do not underlie attention modulation of the Stroop effect. Memory & Cognition, 33, 676–680.
(