Cross-modal, auditory-visual Stroop interference: a reply to Cowan and Barron (1987)

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Experimental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The Stroop task measures cognitive interference between automatic and controlled processes.
• Auditory interference effects are theorized to impact tasks relying on phonological memory.
• Previous research suggested auditory color-word interference affects visual Stroop performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To replicate Cowan and Barron's (1987) findings on auditory color-word interference in a visual Stroop task.
• To test the hypothesis that interference occurs at the phonological store of the articulatory loop.
• To determine if perceptual tasks, unlike memory tasks, are susceptible to auditory interference.

Main Methods:

• A visual Stroop task was employed.
• Auditory stimuli (color-words) were presented concurrently with visual stimuli.
• Experimental data were collected to assess interference effects.

Main Results:

• The present experimental data failed to replicate Cowan and Barron's (1987) reported effects.
• No significant auditory color-word interference was observed in the visual Stroop task.
• Results contradict the initial hypothesis of interference in this perceptual task.

Conclusions:

• The findings do not support the existence of auditory color-word interference on visual Stroop tasks.
• Contemporary cognitive theory, which predicts no such interference, is supported by these results.
• This study highlights the importance of replicability in cognitive psychology research.