An auditory analog of the Stroop Test

With use of a tape-recorded auditory method of stimulus presentation, 112 undergraduates were required to identify the tonal concepts of high and low when these concepts were symbolically coded both in terms of high and low pitches of voice and by the spoken words "high" and "low." Trials consisted of 44-item sequential identifications of the concepts. Results were consistent with those in other realms. With use of a speeded accuracy criterion, findings were that Ss could identify the concepts faster from word symbols than from pitch symbols and faster from the two types of symbol information correctly matched than from either component type alone. More interference was produced when half of the symbols on a trial were mismatched and the other half matched than when all of the symbols were mismatched. Interference effects in both directions were found, but there was a larger interference of words on pitch than of pitch on words.