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The context-specific proportion congruent Stroop effect: Location as a contextual cue

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Abstract

The Stroop effect has been shown to depend on the relative proportion of congruent and incongruent trials. This effect is commonly attributed to experiment-wide word-reading strategies that change as a function of proportion congruent. Recently, Jacoby, Lindsay, and Hessels (2003) reported an itemspecific proportion congruent effect that cannot be due to these strategies and instead may reflect rapid, stimulus driven control over word-reading processes. However, an item-specific proportion congruent effect may also reflect learned associations between color word identities and responses. In two experiments, we demonstrate a context-specific proportion congruent effect that cannot be explained by such word—response associations. Our results suggest that processes other than learning of word—response associations can produce contextual control over Stroop interference.

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Correspondence to Matthew J. C. Crump.

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This research was supported by a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grant awarded to the third author. We thank Ellen MacLellan, Sharmili Shan, and Karen Willoughby for their help in collecting the data.

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Crump, M.J.C., Gong, Z. & Milliken, B. The context-specific proportion congruent Stroop effect: Location as a contextual cue. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 13, 316–321 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193850

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193850

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