The Examination of Response Competition Hypothesis in Color-Word Stroop Interference Task Using Transformed Word Conditions

This experiment was conducted to examine the response competition hypothesis of Stroop interference using colorword Stroop interference task with transformed word conditions. Subjects were 17 college students. The experiment was conducted individually and presentaion of stimulus, all time tactors, records of responses were all controlled by Macintosh Performa 5320 computer with programed by Super-Mind Lab. Version 1.4 program. The stimulus were four color words (red, yellow, green, and blue). They were given color-word Stroop task with four transformed word conditions (normal orientation, backward and upside-down orientation, upsidedown orientation, reverse orientation). First they did word reading task and then they did color naming task (the Stroopinterference task) in succession. In the word reading task, they were asked to read the words in each transformed word conditions. In color naming task, they were asked to name the color of ink printed word. The main results were as follows: In color naming (the Stroop-intereference) task, the time to name the color of ink printed word was considerably slower under normal word condition than transformed word conditions. But there were no differences among three transformed conditions. In word reading task, the time to read the word was considerably slower under transformed word conditions than normal word condition. These results were compatible with the hypothesis of response competition in color-word Stroop interference. We transformed the orientation of the word, and as a result the time to name the color of ink of printed word was delayed. These results showed that the response competition was disappeared and then Stroop interference was decreased. Moreover it was suggested that we must investigate Stroop-inteference effect under the transformed word conclitions using Japanese KANJI character