Impaired color word processing at an unattended location: Evidence from a Stroop task combined with inhibition of return

摘要

A Stroop task with separate color bar and color word stimuli was combined with an inhibition-of-returnprocedure to examine whether visual attention modulates color word processing. In Experiment 1, the colorbar was presented at the cued location and the color word at the uncued location, or vice versa, with a 100- or1,050-msec stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between cue and Stroop stimuli. In Experiment 2, on Stroop trials,the color bar was presented at a central fixated location and the color word at a cued or uncued location above orbelow the color bar. In both experiments, with a 100-msec SOA, the Stroop effect was numerically larger whenthe color word was displayed at the cued location than when it was displayed at the uncued location, but withthe 1,050-msec SOA, this relation between Stroop effect magnitude and location was reversed. These resultsprovide evidence that processing of the color word in the Stroop task is modulated by the location to whichvisual attention is directed.