Stroop interference through the colour-word task has been a popular means of studying selective attention since its introduction in 1935. Little effort has been made to adapting a non-verbal task for use with pre-school children. Cramer (1976) devised a colour-picture task where pictures characteristically associated with a particular colour (such as a picture of a banana and the colour yellow) were presented in incongruous colours (e.g., a blue banana). A series of studies was conducted with children aged between 3 and 8 years of age which investigated facets of this colour-picture task. Two methods of responding were compared - a verbal response, and a manual response that allowed younger children to participate (a card-sorting technique). In addition to the basic colour-picture task where children named colours and forms, another task was introduced where children 'prescribed' the correct colour of incorrectly-coloured pictures (Santostefano, 1978; Sebovà & Árochovà, 1986). Results showed that children consistently displayed increased latencies when colour-naming and colour-sorting characteristically and uncharacteristically-coloured pictures. Interference was frequently found for inappropriately-coloured but not appropriately-coloured pictures in form-naming/sorting tasks. The prescribing task proved difficult for children to complete and produced increased latencies and error rates. Performance of the naming colour-picture task was compared to classic Stroop colour-word procedures in children aged between 5 and 8. There were correlations between colour naming in the colour-picture and colour-word tasks for children aged 5 - 7. Performance in the prescribing task did not correlate. It is concluded that the tasks are good measures of selective attention but not necessarily direct equivalents of the colour-word task. An evaluation of the verbal and non-verbal methods is also given.

Media sources, often containing ideal body images, put forth the message of selfimprovement and the need to achieve a thin physique. For some women, striving to achieve an ideal body can lead to increased risk of engaging in disordered eating, anxiety, and an increased fixation toward body or weight stimuli. Previous research examining the relationship between body satisfaction and attention toward body related stimuli has often compared clinical eating disorder and non-clinical samples. However, these findings do not give an accurate picture of how non-clinical samples respond to thin body images. The present study sought to determine if engaging in a downward social comparison would negate the "fixation" or increased attention given to body images. Female participants from a university in northern California were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: downward or upward social comparison. Participants were asked to view an advertisement of a model, and write based on a prompt developed to elicit a downward or upward social comparison. Selective attention toward body related stimuli was then assessed through use of a Stroop task, which randomly displayed thin female silhouettes and abstract images. Error rates and reaction times were recorded, with more errors and slower reactions times reflecting increased attention toward the female silhouette. A hierarchal linear regression found an association for the downward social comparison condition and self-esteem. Longer reaction time toward body images was seen among women who engaged in a downward social comparison and had low levels of self-esteem. Among women with high BMI, less selective attention was observed. Comparisons of the groups on reaction times, error rates, and body image measures are discussed.

Individuals who have experienced a traumatic event and develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) frequently show deficits in both primarily “cool” and “hot” cognitive executive functions (e.g., traditional & emotional Stroop tasks, respectively) that can be impacted by high affective salience. Given the dimensional nature of psychopathology, questions remain about individuals within the general population who have experienced trauma but do not meet full criteria for PTSD and yet may manifest problems in these areas, especially areas of hot and cool executive functioning (EF). Thus, the current project was designed to assess hot and cool EF in a relatively large sample of individuals from the general population who have experienced trauma and currently demonstrate sub-clinical levels of post-traumatic symptoms. The Stroop task, Emotional Stroop task, and a novel modified Implicit Association Test were utilized to assess EF across a spectrum of individuals with varying traumatic histories and level of post-traumatic symptoms. Results suggest that a greater frequency of trauma experiences was moderately associated with worse performance on both hot and cool executive functioning measures. Specifically, females within the sample evidenced a close relationship between traumatic experiences, post-trauma symptoms, and executive functioning. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Cardiovascular activities may increase the brain blood flow improving neuronal activities leading to improved cognition. Consequently, the effects of an acute bout of moderate intensity aerobic exercise on brain hemodynamics and its correlation with cognitive color-word Stroop task performance were tested. The Stroop tasks were congruent (color matches word) and incongruent (color does not match word). Prefrontal (PFC) and motor cortex (MC) blood flow was recorded by fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) while the subject was performing the Stroop tasks before and after the 30 minutes of exercise or equivalent time of rest controls (checking for practice effects). Ninety human subjects of age 24± 6, 20 ADHD (attention-deficit hyper-activity disorder), 27 High-BMI (>25), 29 males were recruited. Reaction time ‘RT' decreased (p<0.05) after exercise for both the congruent (12%) and incongruent (10%) Stroop tasks, compared to 8% with practice alone. Accuracy did not change after practice or exercise. HR changes after exercise correlated (p<0.05) with better accuracy and faster RT for the incongruent Stroop task. In general, a metabolic lag occurred in the neuronal deoxy- hemoglobin (Hb) signals behind the systemic oxy-Hb signals. PFC showed the highest effect sizes of Stroop task-responsive systemic hemodynamic changes compared to baseline irrespective of rest or exercise. Yet, PFC showed most significant (p<0.001) neuronal hemodynamic changes between the before and after exercise sessions, and these changes were opposite for right and left PFC, and opposite for congruent and incongruent Stroop tasks. Correlating the RT and mistakes with hemodynamics for both the Stroop tasks revealed that, after exercise, neuronal hemodynamic changes occurred at both PFC and MC associated with faster RT (p<0.05), and systemic hemodynamic responses occurred at PFC correlated (p<0.05) with mistakes. Overall, it was concluded that exercise changed the neuronal hemodynamic changes affecting speed; however, neuronal metabolic changes did not occur sufficiently to help improve accuracy in all subjects.

Synaesthesia is a variation of normal human perception. A grapheme synaesthete, for example, can experience extra sensations, such as colours when seeing letters and/or numbers. Synaesthetic ability is commonly developed at an early age, and is linked to a genetic pre-disposition; however, there is a learnt component, as one must also learn to read and write to develop grapheme synaesthesia. To explore the extent to which synaesthesia can be learnt, a training method was employed, which was first used by Colizoli, Murre and Rouw (2012). In order to learn their own coloured letters a group of non-synaesthetic individuals read colour books, which are free eBooks reproduced to have four letters consistently appear in colour. Before and after reading, the participants completed a modified Stroop-design based on Mills (1999), which was used to measure if they had learnt the two key characteristics of synaesthesia, namely an involuntary and automatic reaction to letters. Both the colour reading (n=15) and control (n=6) groups did not have a significant involuntary reaction to letters. However, it was found that the participants had significantly more automatic reactions to letters. This included the control group, who did not read in colour, which suggests that merely completing the modified Stroop test is enough to learn the automatic characteristic of grapheme synaesthesia. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Synaesthesia is a variation of normal human perception. A grapheme synaesthete, for example, can experience extra sensations, such as colours when seeing letters and/or numbers. Synaesthetic ability is commonly developed at an early age, and is linked to a genetic pre-disposition; however, there is a learnt component, as one must also learn to read and write to develop grapheme synaesthesia. To explore the extent to which synaesthesia can be learnt, a training method was employed, which was first used by Colizoli, Murre and Rouw (2012). In order to learn their own coloured letters a group of non-synaesthetic individuals read colour books, which are free eBooks reproduced to have four letters consistently appear in colour. Before and after reading, the participants completed a modified Stroop-design based on Mills (1999), which was used to measure if they had learnt the two key characteristics of synaesthesia, namely an involuntary and automatic reaction to letters. Both the colour reading (n=15) and control (n=6) groups did not have a significant involuntary reaction to letters. However, it was found that the participants had significantly more automatic reactions to letters. This included the control group, who did not read in colour, which suggests that merely completing the modified Stroop test is enough to learn the automatic characteristic of grapheme synaesthesia. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)