Background

Sometimes we cannot seem to prevent stimuli from intruding on our cognitive processes. Some responses to stimuli seem to be automatic. Responses just jump out regardless of where we want to direct our attention. This situation is best described once we have an example under our belt. Try this experiment before you continue with the book. Your task will be to, read carefully, name the colors. Let us see how you do.

Instructions

You can adjust several parameters to design your own version of the experments. The settings are discussed below.

Stimulus Settings

The stimulus settings include the following:

New Study: when the study has been finished, you can press this button to start a new experiment.
Reset Stimulus: press this button to reset to the default conditions.
Font Size: the size of the letters for the words.
Background Gray Level: the brightness the background behind the word from back to white.
Interstimulus Interval (ms): The time between the words.
Stimulus On Till Response: Select to have the stimulus on till the participant responds.
Duration of Stimulus (ms): If the above item is unselected, use this setting to adjust how long the stimulus stays on.

Method Settings

New Study: when the study has been finished, you can press this button to start a new experiment.
Reset Method: press this button to reset to the default conditions.
Word/Color Relationship: Select those conditions you want to run. Congruent: word and color the same, Incongruent: word and color or different, XXXX Colored: a string of X's.
Words: The color words, and thus the colors, that will be used.
Number of Trials/condition: How many trials in each condition.

Results Tab

Your data will be presented on the results tab. The x-axis will have the word/color relationship. You can look at both reaction time and accuracy. To see your trial-by-trial, press the Show Data button. To see the summary data press the Show Summary button. This data can be copied and saved.

Instructions for Experiment

On the experiment tab, press the spacebar or the Start button. There are instructions above the "Start" button. Read them to know how to perform the experiment. Keep your eyes fixated on the red plus sign in the middle of the screen.

Stimulus Settings

Change the settings below to alter the stimulus parameters in this experiment.

Method Settings

Change the settings below to alter the parameters of the experimental method.

Results