MacLeod C M
Division of Life Sciences, University of Toronto, Scarborough, ON, Canada.
Mem Cognit. 1998 Mar;26(2):201-11. doi: 10.3758/bf03201133.
Two experiments examined the course of interference and facilitation in the Stroop (1935) task during training. Two versions of the task were compared: integrated (e.g., the word RED in the color green) and separated (e.g., green asterisks above the word RED). Stimuli were congruent (RED in red), incongruent (GREEN in red), or neutral (XXX in red). Over 5-day (Experiment 1) and 10-day (Experiment 2) training sessions, facilitation due to congruence was small, stable, and equivalent in both task versions. In contrast, interference declined sharply on the integrated task over Days 1-3, then slowed to parallel the gradual decline on the separated task. Finally, training on the color naming task did not affect a word reading task administered after training. These findings imply that (a) Stroop interference initially reflects two problems--overcoming integration and managing two conflicting information sources; (b) with practice, the larger integration problem is solved relatively quickly, rendering the integrated and separated tasks quite comparable thereafter; and (c) facilitation and interference in the Stroop task may be independent. These results challenge extant theories of the Stroop effect, which do not predict such effects.
两项实验考察了训练过程中斯特鲁普（1935年）任务的干扰和促进作用过程。对该任务的两个版本进行了比较：整合版（例如，用绿色书写的单词RED）和分离版（例如，在单词RED上方的绿色星号）。刺激分为一致（红色的RED）、不一致（红色的GREEN）或中性（红色的XXX）。在为期5天（实验1）和10天（实验2）的训练过程中，一致性带来的促进作用较小、稳定，且在两个任务版本中相当。相比之下，在整合任务中，干扰在第1至3天急剧下降，然后减缓至与分离任务的逐渐下降并行。最后，颜色命名任务的训练并未影响训练后进行的单词阅读任务。这些发现意味着：（a）斯特鲁普干扰最初反映了两个问题——克服整合以及管理两个相互冲突的信息源；（b）通过练习，更大的整合问题相对较快得到解决，此后整合任务和分离任务相当可比；（c）斯特鲁普任务中的促进作用和干扰作用可能是独立的。这些结果挑战了现有的斯特鲁普效应理论，这些理论并未预测到此类效应。
