Stroop dilution but not word-processing dilution: evidence for attention capture.

Full Abstract

Stroop dilution refers to the observation that the impact of a color word on the naming of a color bar is reduced if another word-like object is displayed simultaneously. Recently, Brown, Roos-Gilbert, and Carr (1995) concluded that Stroop dilution is due to early-visual interference. This conclusion was evaluated in three experiments. Experiment 1 showed that, contrary to the predictions of an early-visual interference account, (a) diluters that are similar in terms of visual complexity induced different amounts of dilution and (b) the size of the dilution effect is proportional to the size of the Stroop interference effect when the diluters are used as single distractors. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that when the position of the color bar is pre-cued, Stroop dilution disappears. We argue that these findings support Van der Heijden's (1992) attention-capture account of Stroop dilution.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Mitterer, Holger (H); La Heij, Wido (W); Van der Heijden, A H C (AH);

Affiliation: Universiteit Maastricht, Faculteit der Psychologie, Department of Neurocognition, Postbus 6 16, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. h.mitterer@psychology.unimaas.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Psychological research (Psychol Res), published in Germany. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Feb; vol 67 (issue 1) : pp 30-42

Dates: Created 2003/02/17; Completed 2003/05/06; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12589448, 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.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.

See 100+ related articles.