Try a fun psychological experiment to test your reaction time and learn about how your brain functions!
Materials
A piece of paper
A few colored pens or colored pencils
Timer (substitute: phone)
Calculator (substitute: phone)
Time Estimated:
10 minutes
Directions:
First, use all available colors of pens or pencils to write the names of colors on the paper, with the color NOT corresponding to the color of the pen. You can watch the video for an example.
Now try the first method and read the words for the colors for 2-3 rounds and time yourself for each trial.
This time, try another method by reading the colors of each word as fast as you can. Again, repeat for 2-3 rounds and keep the timer for each trial.
Now it's time to use our calculator! Take the mean of all trials you tried for each method and compare which method is faster. The way to know the mean is first to calculate the total time used for each method, then divide the sum by the number of trials you tried for each experiment.
Think Like a Scientist!
What is the purpose of reading the words or naming the colors multiple times?
What makes the difference between the reaction times of the two methods?
How Does it Work?
In most cases, people find it far easier to read the names of the colors than the color for each word. This occurs due to an incongruence between the color of the word and the word written. The inconsistency leads to a subconscious delay in people’s response as they sense that something “is off,” or incongruent, with what they have previously observed and experienced.
Naming the color requires higher and often less well-developed cognitive processes than reading the word for the color. The former requires controlled attention to process the information, while the latter is an automatic process as a result of habitual reading. The mechanism at work is the Stroop Effect, or “the delay in reaction time between automatic and controlled processing of information, in which the names of the words interfere with the ability to name the color of ink used to print the words.” This was first developed by psychologist John Ridley Stroop in 1935. In other words, compared to reading names, recognizing colors is not an automatic process, so there is a slight hesitancy when carrying out this action.
On the other hand, you might have also noticed that during the experiment, you were asked to repeat each method a few times. This is part of the process of collecting a larger sample size to ensure that there is enough data to be analyzed. Normally, the larger the sample size, the more reliable results scientists can get for their experiment. This is due to the fact that individual trials often contain errors, whereas the mean of multiple trials can somewhat cancel out the impact of each error. Sample collection and data analysis are important parts of real-world scientific research and experiment.
Further Exploration:
The finding of the Stroop Effect has helped to lay the foundation for understanding brain mechanisms, specifically by leading scientists to identify two key regions of the brain responsible for this effect. It is now known that one of the regions called ACC is responsible for selecting the appropriate response and properly allocating attentional resources, or in short, it is in charge of the controlled processing of our brain. The other region, called DLFPC, assists with memory and executive functioning, and its role during the Stroop Effect experiment is to activate color perception.
A further understanding of brain mechanisms also allows scientists to study brain damage and conduct further psychopathology research among patients with mental disorders such as OCD, depression, and ADHD.
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