School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
PLoS One. 2013 May 24;8(5):e64712. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064712. Print 2013.
In post-unification Germany, lingering conflicts between East and West Germans have found some unusual outlets, including a debate of the relative superiority of East and West German 'Ampelmännchen' pedestrian traffic signs. In our study, we probed the visual efficacy of East and West German Ampelmännchen signs with a Stroop-like conflict task. We found that the distinctive East German man-with-hat figures were more resistant to conflicting information, and in turn produced greater interference when used as distractors. These findings demonstrate Stroop-like effects for real-life objects, such as traffic signs, and underline the practical utility of an East German icon.
在统一后的德国，东德人和西德人之间挥之不去的冲突找到了一些不寻常的出口，包括一场关于东德和西德“行人横道信号灯小人”（ Ampelmännchen ）交通标志相对优越性的辩论。在我们的研究中，我们使用类似于斯特鲁普（ Stroop ）冲突任务的方法来探究东德和西德 Ampelmännchen 标志的视觉效果。我们发现，具有特色的东德戴帽男人形象对冲突信息的抵抗力更强，而当它们被用作干扰物时，会产生更大的干扰。这些发现证明了现实生活中的物体（如交通标志）也存在类似于斯特鲁普的效应，并强调了一个东德图标具有的实际效用。
