The Stroop Color-Test is a very important and reliable tool for assessment in psychology. The Stroop test is used to demonstrate the interference in the reaction time of a given task. The name and the color are printed in a color denoted by the name of the color. This test is normally used to determine the influence of sex, age and educational level on attention and cognitive flexibility Afsaneh et al (2012). The naming of these colors usually takes longer and sometimes involves errors. In the past, several different versions of the Stroop tests have been developed with variations in the number and color of items, the administration procedure, and the number of subjects. In spite of these variations, the basic model of the Stroop test has remained the same. The performance of an individual on a basic task is compared with his performance on an analogous task where a habitual response requires suppression in support of an unusual one. In this report aimed at determining whether age and sex affect performance in the Stroop Color-Word test, the data were collected via the Inquisit software program. The results of the study were presented in a table and analyzed using a graph.
Participants
The sample size used in this research study was 353 participants. The participants under the age of 18 years and those participants with unusually high number of errors, especially above 30 percent were excluded from the final study sample. Women were more than the men in the research study constituting two hundred and fifty-seven participants, which is 72.8 percent of the participants. Men were 96 participants, which is 27.2 percent of the total study sample. The sampling was used to avoid biased representation of the sexes based on the fact that there are more women than men. The final study sample was further subdivided into two groups based on their age differences. The average age of the study sample was 31.51 years (SD = 13.56). Therefore, the sample was grouped into younger and older groups as presented in tables 1 and 2 respectively. 55 percent of the study sample was between 18 and 30 years and the rest of the percentage fell above 31 years.
Procedures
The data were collected and recorded in the tables 1 and 2 and indicated below. The incongruent condition represents when the word color did not match the meaning of the word and the congruent condition represented when the word color and the meaning of the word matched. The control condition represents when there is no word, but a colored square. Latency in this research study refers to the time taken in milliseconds from when the word or square flashed on the screen to when a response was given. For the purposes of this report, the latency difference of 100 milliseconds is considered significant. Correct refers to the percentage correct responses. For the purposes of this assignment, a mean difference of 2% in percentage correct is considered a significant difference. The data presented in the tables below are presented in the form of group means.
Under The Table 1 Lab, the scores and Semantic Differential Scales for a young age group and the age group based on gender
A graphical representation of scores and Semantic Differential Scales for a young age group and the age group based on gender
Discussion
Conclusion
In this stroop test with 353 participants, the results of the study indicated that, especially the speed dependent scores relative to the accuracy were profoundly affected by the demographic variables. Additionally, apart from the main effects of demographic variables the differences in age and gender were also responsible for the differences in the test scores. This implies that the executive function, as measured by the Stroop test declines with the decline in age and across the gender differences. This, therefore, implies that, the differences in gender and age among different individuals is responsible for the levels of accuracy and speed of activity.
Reference
Afsaneh, Z., Alireza, Z., Mehdi, T., Farzad, A., Reza, Z., Mehdi, M., & Mojtaba, K. (2012).
Cohn, N. B., Dustman, R. E., & Bradford, D. C. (1984). Age‐related decrements in stroop
color test performance. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40(5), 1244-1250.
Van der Elst, W., Van Boxtel, M.P.J., Van Breukelen, G.J.P., & Jolles, J. (2006). The Stroop
Color Word Test: Influence of age, sex, and education; and normative data for a large sample across the adult age range. Assessment, 13(1), 62-79.
