Driven by information: a tectonic theory of Stroop effects.

Full Abstract

The goal of avoiding distraction (e.g., ignoring words when naming their print colors in a Stroop task) is opposed intrinsically by the penchant to process conspicuous and correlated characteristics of the environment (e.g., noticing trial-to-trial associations between the colors and the words). To reconcile these opposing forces, the authors propose a tectonic theory of selective attention in which 2 memory-based structures--dimensional imbalance and dimensional uncertainty--drive selection by processing salient, surprising, and/or correlated information contained within and across stimulus dimensions. Each structure modulates the buildup of excitation to targets and the buildup of inhibition to distractors and to memories of previous stimuli. Tectonic theory is implemented to simulate the impact of 4 types of context on the presence, magnitude, and direction of congruity effects and task effects in the Stroop paradigm. The tectonic model is shown to surpass other formal models in explaining the range and diversity of Sroop effects.

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Author information

Author/s: Melara, Robert D (RD); Algom, Daniel (D);

Affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-1364, USA. melara(-atsign-)psych.purdue.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Psychological review (Psychol Rev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jul; vol 110 (issue 3) : pp 422-71

Dates: Created 2003/07/29; Completed 2003/08/08; Revised 2005/11/16;

PMID: 12885110, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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