I’m working on a psychology discussion question and need the explanation and answer to help me learn.

Some theories involve the concept of Stroop interference, which is a conflict between the color label and the written word on an incongruent trial. During those incongruent trials, processing the word text conflicts with the color recognition process, causing you to respond more slowly. This is sometimes referred to as competition, in which the two answers “compete” for your response.

Another explanation doesn’t involve competition at all and is referred to as a race model: two sources of information—in this case the font color and the meaning of the word—are running next to each other in your mind, and the fastest runner wins. Since your brain has a well-worn path for seeing, activating, and reading words, information can travel quickly along this path. However, there is now a second, less automatic path for naming a font color, and it is also racing to the finish line. In the race model, you are slower on the incongruent trials because two sources of information (word meaning and font color) show up to the finish line with different answers.

This ZAPS lab activity was designed to help you better understand the Stroop effect, as well as the concepts of automaticity and race versus competition models. Race and competition models are found in many areas of psychology and cognition, and seek to explain how the underlying mechanisms of the mind work.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: Suppose we ran another experiment using the same stimuli used here, but you were instead asked to ignore the color of the font and read the word. Would you still expect to find reaction time differences between the congruent and incongruent trials? Why?