Hemispheric asymmetry in the processing of Stroop stimuli: an examination of age and gender differences.

In responding to Stroop stimuli, individuals consistently respond with shorter latencies when reading the color word than when reporting the hue of the color word stimulus. The responses of second graders and sixth graders and data from an earlier study of university students were included in the analyses. For all groups the expected Stroop effect was present. An analysis of covariance revealed that the covariable, the word score, was significantly related to the color score for all age groups. Whether or not the data were controlled for handedness and language, there was a significant difference between sexes for university students but not for second or sixth graders.