Does age affect the ‘StroopEffect’?
By Thura Sabbar and Josia George
Aim: To test if different age groups are impacted differently by thestroop effect.
Hypothesis: If the stroop effect is tested on different age groups, thenthe older participants(41+) will the most impacted by the stroop effectas their cognitive automatic response has declined.
Background Information: The stroop effect was first published in anarticle in 1935 by John Ridley stroop. The effect is where you must say
the colour of a word, but not the name. It test your delayed reaction
when the colour of the word, does not match the word. Most people
tend to recognise the word faster than the colour. Through the test, we
see that our brains are more trained to read the word.He found thatwhen our brains are instructed to do the opposite, our brains had tointentionally adjust to the response. This is called interference.
Method:1- Record the age of the participant.
2- Use a stopwatch to time how long it takes the participant tocomplete the initial easy test.
3- Record the time for the initial test.
4- Repeat steps 2-3 with the same participant but this time use thefinal hard test.
5- Figure out the time difference between the two tests, and record thisinformation
6- Repeat steps 1-5 with numerous different participants.

Analysis: Through this experiment we were able to determinethat age does in fact play a role in determining how deeply theparticipants were affected by the stroop effect. Through thisexperiment we are able to conclude that the oldest participants
41+ were in fact the most affected by the stroop effect due to avariety of possible reasons with the most likely one been thatthe difference did in fact increase with age because thecognitive capacities required to suppress the more automaticresponse begin to decline. However, the age group least
affected by the stroop effect were not the youngest
participants(10-20) as the younger participants brought down
the time difference average, because their concentration skills
and automatic response systems were not fully developed yet.
The participants aged 21-31 were the least affected by thestroop effect as their average time difference was only 22.12seconds, in comparison to that of the participants aged 10-20
with an average of 25.75 seconds, the participants aged 31-40’s
average been 26.75 seconds and the oldest participants 41+’s
average was 74.1 seconds. Possible reasons as to why
participants aged 21-30 were the least impacted by the stroop
effect are that their concentration are fully developed, but
theircognitive capacities that are required to suppress themore automatic response have not yet began to decline.
The results gathered were as valid and accurate as possible,
however there are still a number of different strategies andimprovements that can be made to increase the validity andaccuracy of the experiment. This includes using numerous
different examples of the stroop effect test, rather than just one
in order to collect more diverse data to make the results forvalid. We could also test more people with a bigger variety forages, and finally we could test to see whether different factors
such as gender or eye colour also impact the stroop effect.
Therefor this experiment is as valid and accurate as possible,
but with room for improvement and age did impact the stroop
effect.
Conclusion: In conclusion, through this experiment we wereable to determine that age does in fact impact the stroop effect,with older participants ageing 41+ having a disadvantage as
their cognitive capacities that are required to suppress themore automatic response have began to decline. The younger
participants however also had a disadvantage as theirconcentration skills have not yet fully developed, thus making
participants aged 21-30 the least impacted by the stroop effect.