7 Does The Stroop Effect Affect Different Ages Of People?

WHAT IS THE STROOP EFFECT?

The Stroop Effect is a neurological phenomenon, first recorded by John Ridley Stroop. He wrote about the effect in his book, "Studies of Interference in Serial Verbal Reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology". What happens inside of a person's brain is that two signals are sent when trying to read the word written in a different color ink than the word itself (Green). One is saying that the person should say the word, and one is saying that the person should say the ink color. My experiment was decide how different ages of people reacted to this.

QUESTION: How does the Stroop Effect affect people of different ages?

HYPOTHESIS: My experiment is based on the Stroop Effect. My hypothesis was that people of different ages would have a quicker reaction time when seeing the word’s color first before reading the actual word because of possible poor eyesight. As such people of younger ages would look to read the word instead of seeing the color first.

PROCEDURE:

• 1. Create 3 Stroop Effect tests by putting a different word on each slide.

  2. Find 5-6 people of different ages of the same gender (5, 10, 20, 44, 64)

  3. Give them each the tests and time each separately

  4. Average the 3 times of each person together

  5. Compare all of the average times in a bar graph

CONCLUSION: From my experiment I learned more about how the brain works. I learned that the brain isn’t perfect, and sometimes can make mistakes. I learned how the Stroop Effect affects people of different ages. My data showed me that my hypothesis was incorrect. I believed that people of older ages would get faster times than those of younger ages; however, I discovered that the middle age group got the fastest times and a person’s reaction time decreased as they got older. Maybe I could have tested more people to get a more accurate graph. I also could have had something other than the space bar change the slide. Maybe something that will change the slide when the person says the correct wor

ABSTRACT:

This year my science project was about The Stroop Effect This effect a phenomenon in which a person must say the color of the word, without reading the actual word. I wanted to figure out how different ages of people are affected by the Stroop Effect. My hypothesis was that people of older ages would have faster times, and that people of younger ages would have slower times. I believed this because people of older ages tend to have worse eyesight than children. I thought that children would see the word and then color, and people of older ages would see the opposite.

To complete my experiment, I started off by creating three tests on Google Slides, each with different colors, with one word on each slide. After this, I found people who were willing to take these tests while being timed. They signed a waiver and came to my house to take the test. Next, I gave each person a test where they had to say the color of the word on a slide quickly. I timed each person while they read the word typed on each slide. On each slide, there was one word written in a color. When the person said the correct color of the word I tapped the spacebar to move to the next slide. I repeated this three times for each person. After that, I found the average of the three different test times. Lastly, I created a bar graph showing all of the averages next to each other.

The results from my experiment surprised me. Each of my subjects results, all of which were male, are as follows: five-year old got 29.68 seconds, ten-year old got 26.46 seconds, twenty-year old got 22.48 seconds, forty-four-year old got 22.53 seconds, and the sixty-four-year old got 31.16 seconds. Strangely, the five-year old, despite being unable to read very well still was effected by the Stroop Effect. He would see the word green, and say gray, because he saw “gr” which he recognized.

From my experiment I can conclude that the Stroop Effect affects people of all ages. With my data I created a graph that shows the range of ages and how they scored. For example, twenty would be in the middle. If I had more people to test, maybe I could have come up with a more specific graph. My hypothesis was incorrect because I predicted that the people of older ages would do the best. In fact, they did the worst. From my experiment, I learned about the Stroop Effect, and how it affects people of different ages.

Speed (For the Tests)