Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Mar;23(2):e12899.
doi: 10.1111/desc.12899. Epub 2019 Sep 18.

Stroop interference is a composite phenomenon: Evidence from distinct developmental trajectories of its components

Ludovic Ferrand  1 , Stéphanie Ducrot  2 , Pierre Chausse  1 , Norbert Maïonchi-Pino  1 , Richard J O'Connor  3 , Benjamin A Parris  4 , Patrick Perret  5 , Kevin J Riggs  3 , Maria Augustinova  6
Affiliations

Stroop interference is a composite phenomenon: Evidence from distinct developmental trajectories of its components

Ludovic Ferrand et al. Dev Sci. 2020 Mar.

Abstract

Only one previous developmental study of Stroop task performance (Schiller, 1966) has controlled for differences in processing speed that exist both within and between age groups. Therefore, the question of whether the early developmental change in the magnitude of Stroop interference actually persists after controlling for processing speed needs further investigation; work that is further motivated by the possibility that any remaining differences would be caused by process(es) other than processing speed. Analysis of data from two experiments revealed that, even after controlling for processing speed using z-transformed reaction times, early developmental change persists such that the magnitude of overall Stroop interference is larger in 3rd- and 5th graders as compared to 1st graders. This pattern indicates that the magnitude of overall Stroop interference peaks after 2 or 3 years of reading practice (Schadler & Thissen, 1981). Furthermore, this peak is shown to be due to distinct components of Stroop interference (resulting from specific conflicts) progressively falling into place. Experiment 2 revealed that the change in the magnitude of Stroop interference specifically results from joint contributions of task, semantic and response conflicts in 3rd- and 5th graders as compared to a sole contribution of task conflict in 1st graders. The specific developmental trajectories of different conflicts presented in the present work provide unique evidence for multiple loci of Stroop interference in the processing stream (respectively task, semantic and response conflict) as opposed to a single (i.e. response) locus predicted by historically - favored response competition accounts.

Keywords: Stroop interference; developmental trajectories; response conflict; semantic conflict; task conflict.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Aïte, A., Cassotti, M., Linzarini, A., Osmont, A., Houdé, O., & Borst, G. (2018). Adolescents’ inhibitory control: Keep it cool or lose control. Developmental Science, 21. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12491
    1. Armengol, C. G. (2002). Stroop test in Spanish: Children’s norms. Clinical Neuropsychologist, 16, 67-80. https://doi.org/10.1076/clin.16.1.67.8337
    1. Augustinova, M., Almeida, E., Clarys, D., Ferrand, L., Izaute, M., Jalenques, I., … Silvert, L. (2016). Que mesure l’interférence Stroop? Quand et comment? Arguments méthodologiques et théoriques en faveur d’un changement de pratiques dans sa mesure [What the Stroop interference actually measures? When and how? Methodological and theoretical arguments in favor of change in its measurement]. L'année Psychologique/Topics in Cognitive Psychology, 116, 45-66.
    1. Augustinova, M., Clarys, D., Spatola, N., & Ferrand, L. (2018). Some further clarifications on age-related differences in Stroop interference. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25, 767-774. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1427-0
    1. Augustinova, M., & Ferrand, L. (2014a). Social priming of dyslexia and reduction of the Stroop effect: What component of the Stroop effect is actually reduced? Cognition, 130, 442-454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.11.014

LinkOut - more resources