Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Psychol Res. 2021 Apr;85(3):1084-1092. doi: 10.1007/s00426-020-01311-6. Epub 2020 Mar 13.
It has been suggested that the interference in the Stroop task arises due to both information conflict (color vs. word meaning) and task conflict (respond to the color vs. read the word). Interestingly, the task conflict (faster responses in the congruent condition compared to the neutral condition) is influenced by the readability of the stimulus. However, behavioral results indicate the influence of the contribution of readability to the task conflict appears only when vocal responses are required. We conducted a Stroop experiment with four readability levels of neutrals. Participants were required to respond manually, and both their response times and pupil dilation were measured. Our results showed the slowest responses for incongruent trials and the fastest responses for congruent trials. However, no differences in responses were found between the readability levels of the neutrals. In contrast, pupil dilation showed the largest dilation in the incongruent trials and smallest dilation in the neutral trials. In addition, the differences between congruent and neutral trials were influenced by the readability of the stimulus. Specifically, unreadable neutral stimuli showed meaningful differences early on, which also remained for longer time compared with readable neutral stimuli. These results are important and can help in specifying new requirements regarding the theory and modeling of the Stroop task; in particular, studies that want to control the neutrality of their neutral trials should take the readability into account.
有人认为，Stroop 任务中的干扰既来自信息冲突（颜色与单词含义），也来自任务冲突（对颜色做出反应与阅读单词）。有趣的是，任务冲突（与中性条件相比，一致条件下的反应更快）受到刺激可读性的影响。然而，行为结果表明，只有在需要发声反应时，刺激可读性对任务冲突的影响才会显现出来。我们进行了一项 Stroop 实验，使用了四个可读性水平的中性刺激。参与者被要求手动反应，同时测量他们的反应时间和瞳孔扩张。我们的结果表明，不一致试验的反应最慢，一致试验的反应最快。然而，中性刺激的可读性水平之间没有发现反应的差异。相比之下，瞳孔扩张在不一致的试验中扩张最大，在中性的试验中扩张最小。此外，瞳孔扩张的差异受刺激可读性的影响。具体来说，不可读的中性刺激早期就表现出了有意义的差异，与可读的中性刺激相比，这种差异持续的时间也更长。这些结果很重要，可以帮助我们明确 Stroop 任务的理论和模型的新要求；特别是那些希望控制其中性试验中性的研究，应该考虑到可读性。
