Visual Set and Anxiety in the Stroop Phenomenon

Abstract

The effects of a visual set, the Stroop phenomenon, and anxiety —as measured by the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory—upon response latency were examined. Three variations of the set were presented, a color congruent with the response color, a color conflicting with the response color, or no color. Two response conditions were required, reading the color word or reporting the color in which the word was printed. “Reporting the color” had a significantly longer response latency than “reading the word” for all 60 subjects, female volunteers from freshman psychology classes. There was also a significant interaction between anxiety and the Stroop. The medium-anxiety group showed the least discrepancy between the response conditions of the Stroop, indicating the interference effect present in the Stroop phenomenon was least influential for this group. A consistent though not significant difference between the congruent set and conflicting set conditions for the color response as opposed to the word response indicated that, when the set is similar to the response, it is more influential than when it is unrelated.