Question

Two Stroop tasks were given to participants. Stroop task 1 had 70% congruent and 30% incongruent trials. Stroop task 2 had 40% congruent and 60% incongruent trials. Which task would have the greatest Stroop effect?

A) Task 2 because mental strategies form to expect congruency.
B) Task 1 because mental strategies form to expect congruency.
C) Both will produce equal Stroop effects.
D) Task 1 because 30% incongruency means they will pop-out when they appear.

Answer 1

Task 2 would have the greatest Stroop effect due to a higher percentage of incongruent trials, making it more difficult for participants to form mental strategies based on expecting congruency.

Step-by-step explanation:

The task that would have the greatest Stroop effect is Task 2, because it features a higher percentage of incongruent trials (60%) compared to congruent trials (40%). In contexts where congruent trials are less frequent, participants would have less opportunity to develop mental strategies based on expecting congruency. Therefore, they would experience a greater interference effect when processing incongruent trials, which are more prevalent in Task 2. On the other hand, Task 1 has 70% congruent trials, which could lead participants to form a mental strategy that expects congruency, thus reducing the Stroop effect when an incongruent trial appears. This implies that task difficulty and the Stroop effect can be manipulated by changing the ratio of congruent to incongruent trials.