The Stroop Test - Wallingford-Swarthmore School District



The Stroop Test: Teacher Overview

Objectives

• The interpretation of linear equations obtained from data

• The use of these equation in marking predictions, interpolation and extrapolating

• Comparison of related data sets

• Finding a linear equation from the coordinates of points

• Manipulating linear equations

Materials

• 3 stop watches

• graph paper

• rulers

• Stroop overheads

• Uncooked spaghetti

Directions

The teacher places one list on the turned-off overhead projector without letting the subject know whether the list is matching or nonmatching. The teacher makes sure the timers and the subject are ready and turns on the projector. The student must immediately state the color of the ink for each word as quickly as possible. A mistake should be corrected before the student moves on. The timers keep time from the moment the overhead is turned on until the list is completed. A dry run is helpful in letting all students understand the procedure.

Perform the experiment 20 times, matching lists, 10 nonmatching lists. Repeat some of the lists to have multiple points for the same list. Order matching and nonmatching lists randomly so as not to give a student the advantage of knowing beforehand.

If a student becomes flustered and takes an inordinate amount of time to complete a list, discuss the concept of an outlier and discuss the effect of such a data point on the analysis.

Starting with the matching data, have the students plot the points. Discuss how the average time is the dependent variable (y) and the list length is the independent variable (x). Plot the points on the transparency grid at the same time the students do. Using the spaghetti, ask a student to place it so that it best fits the data. Allow some discussion. As soon as the class decides on the best placement, have the students draw in the line with their rulers. Repeat the point plotting with the nonmatching data but use small squares instead of dots.

Have the students write the equations of the two lines using slope intercept form. Estimate the slope and y intercept for each. Using the graphing calculators, enter the data and compute a linear regression on one of the data sets. How close was your equation to the one the calculator found?

Have the students finish their worksheets.

The Stroop Test Name_________________________

One of the main uses of data is to make predications about real-world situations. We are going to perform an experiment from cognitive psychology, which is the branch of psychology that tries to understand and explain how the human brain works. The experiment is named after thee man who first performed it, J.E Stroop.

• Each student will look at a list of color word -red, green, black, or blue. Each list is a

different length. Each word will be written in red, green, black, or blue ink.

• The student will be asked to say the color of the ink for each word. The time needed to completed each list will be recorded by three timers and the average noted.

• Two different list will be used: one on which the color of the ink matches the color word, for example, red written in red ink, and a second on which the color of the ink does not match the color word, for example, red written in blue ink. The first type is called matching, the second, nonmatching.

Answer the following questions before we begin:

1. What do you think we’ll find when we perform these experiments how will the matching

data differ from the non-matching data?

2. What question would a cognitive psychologist be trying to answer by performing the

experiments?

3. Why do we use three timers? Wouldn’t one suffice?

Matching NonMatching

|List Length |Time 1 |Time 2 |Time 3 |

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