Short-term memory for color names using Stroop material.

A modified Stroop arrangement consisting of color names printed in ink of a different color was used in a release from the proactive inhibition (PI) paradigm. In Exp. 1, half of the subjects were informed prior to a trial whether they were to recall the colors or the color names while the remaining half were not informed in advance. After three trials, half of the subjects were shifted to recalling the other material while control subjects continued with the same recall material. Analysis indicated that (1) when subjects were informed in advance, PI release was found in a color name to color shift, but no PI release was found with a shift from color to color name, and (2) when subjects were not informed in advance, no PI release was observed in either shift condition. Exp. 2 replicated the not-informed condition and introduced a longer stimulus-exposure duration for 160 undergraduates. Except for higher recall scores, the same results were obtained. The results were interpreted in terms of differences in the kinds of encoding operations performed on colors and color names.