The authors investigated the on-line relationship between overt articulation and the central processes of speech production. In 2 experiments manipulating the timing of Stroop interference in color naming, the authors found that naming behavior can shift between exhibiting a staged or cascaded mode of processing, depending on task demands: An effect of Stroop interference on naming durations ar...

Raz, Shapiro, Fan, and Posner (2002) have recently provided a compelling demonstration of enhanced attentional control under post-hypnotic suggestion. Using the classic color-word interference paradigm, in which the task is to ignore a word and to name the color in which it is printed (e.g., RED in green, say "green"), they gave a post-hypnotic instruction to participants that they would be una...

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of acute aerobic and strength exercises on selected executive functions. A counterbalanced, crossover, randomized trial was performed. Forty-two healthy women were randomly submitted to three different conditions: (1) aerobic exercise, (2) strength exercise, and (3) control condition. Before and after each condition, executive functions were meas...

BACKGROUND A pattern characterizing cognitive deficits in mild stroke could help in differential diagnosis and rehabilitation planning. METHODS Fifty patients with mild stroke (modified Rankin scale ≤2 at discharge) aged >60 years were given the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) and the Stroop test. RESULTS On HVLT-R, significant impairm...

According to a recent extension of the conflict-monitoring theory, conflict between two competing response tendencies is registered as an aversive event and triggers a motivation to avoid the source of conflict. In the present study, we tested this assumption. Over five experiments, we examined whether conflict is associated with an avoidance motivation and whether stimulus conflict or response...

In numerous psychological experiments, participants classify stimuli by pressing response keys. According to Lakens, Schneider, Jostmann, and Schubert (2011), classification performance is affected by physical distance between response keys--indicating a cognitive tendency to represent categories in spatial code. However, previous evidence for a key distance effect (KDE) from a color-naming Str...

Most earlier studies investigating the evolution of the Stroop effect with the amount of reading practice have reported data consistent with an inverted U-shaped curve, whereby the Stroop effect appears early during reading acquisition, reaches a peak after 2 or 3 years of practice, and then continuously decreases until adulthood. The downward component of the curve suggests that skilled perfor...

At least for some individuals, suggestion seems capable of easing certain automatic processes back into the purview of control. Unrelated to hypnosis and suggestion, a number of accounts have challenged the automaticity of the Stroop effect, demonstrating reduction of Stroop interference (Besner, 2001; Besner and Stolz, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c; Besner, Stolz & Boutilier, 1997; Dishon-Berkovits & Al...