Reduced interference in the Stroop effect, determining when a word is read automatically

grantor: University of TorontoBesner, Stolz, and Boutillier (1997) claimed to have eliminated Stroop interference by colouring only a single letter of an irrelevant word and requiring participants to name the colour of that letter. On this basis, they argued that word reading could not be automatic. Four experiments demonstrated that their manipulation reduces but in fact does not eliminate Stroop interference. It is argued that this reduction in Stroop interference is almost exactly offset by an equivalent increase in latency due to the added requirement of searching for the coloured letter. This two-process explanation adequately accounts for the Besner et al. (1997) results as well as other more recent results (MacLeod, 1999; Marmurek, 1999). Moreover, it is suggested that other aspects of the Besner et al. methodology may have produced the illusion that Stroop interference was eliminated. Irrelevant words are read even in the single coloured letter variant of the Stroop task.M.A