Reversing the Emotional Stroop Effect Reveals That It Is Not What It Seems: The Role of Fast and Slow Components

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition memory, and cognition, 2004-03, Vol.30 (2), p.382-392
• Main Authors: McKenna, Frank P, Sharma, Dinkar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affectivity. Emotion; Association; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Measurement; Cognitive Processes; Color; Color Perception; Discrimination Learning; Emotional Response; Emotional States; Emotions; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Male; Memory; Personality. Affectivity; Prediction; Psychological Studies; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychophysics; Reaction Time; Reading; Semantics; Set (Psychology); Stimuli; Stimulus Parameters; Stroop Effect; Visual Perception
• ISSN: 0278-7393; 1939-1285
• DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.30.2.382

The relative contributions of slow and fast (online) components in a modified emotional Stroop task were evaluated. The slow component, neglected in previous research, was shown to lead to the prediction of a reversed emotional intrusion effect using pseudorandomly mixed negative and neutral stimuli. This prediction was supported in Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiments 3 and 4, a new paradigm was developed that allowed a more direct observation of the nature of disruptive effects from negative stimuli. The results provided a clear demonstration of the presence of the slow component. The fast component, which has generally been assumed to be the source of the interference, was shown, in fact, to have little or no role in the disruption.