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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
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Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task
Published on: February 26, 2020
The relationship between Stroop interference and facilitation effects: statistical artifacts, baselines, and a
1Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC 28804, USA. tlbrown@unca.edu
Summary
Facilitation effects in the Stroop task are substantial and robust when controlling for word properties. Interference and facilitation are largely uncorrelated, challenging the single-mechanism view.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Experimental psychology
Background:
- The Stroop task is widely used to study cognitive control.
- The relationship between interference and facilitation effects is not well understood.
- Current models suggest a single mechanism underlies both effects, based on word-color congruency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between interference and facilitation in the Stroop task.
- To challenge the modal view that both effects arise from a single mechanism.
- To clarify the roles of congruency and lexicality in Stroop effects.
Main Methods:
- Statistical simulations were performed.
- Previous data were reanalyzed.
- Two new experiments were conducted, carefully deconfounding congruency from lexicality.
Main Results:
- Facilitation effects are robust and substantial when lexicality is controlled.
- The previously reported inverse correlations between interference and facilitation are largely spurious.
- Interference and facilitation effects are either uncorrelated or only weakly inversely related.
Conclusions:
- Facilitation is a significant component of the Stroop task.
- The inverse correlation finding is likely an artifact of confounding variables.
- Stroop task interpretation requires distinguishing between lexicality-based and congruency-based effects.
