Stroop Effect Essay

Have you ever wondered how people’s brains mix things up that their not supposed to, or how they sometimes have a brain farts, well this activity does that exact thing. The “Stroop Effect” is a spectacular phenomenon that makes a person say the color of a word when that exact word is also a color. Although people may believe it is easy it is a bit more difficult than believed to be. This is due to the fact that the word itself has a giant impact on the ability People have to actually say the word.

Therefore the difference in the information makes complications for the human brain and it starts to cause numerous problems. Scientists believe that its difficulty could have something to do with the speed of processing and selective attention that human beings possess. The Speed of Processing Theory states that the words are read quicker than the colors are named. Yet, Selective Attention Theory explains that the naming of colors takes up more attention than reading words. However if people had a bit more knowledge on the human brain maybe they could understand and comprehend this effect a little more.

The human brain is something that scientist look into intensely everyday so that we may understand the functions and capacity. As most would say it is somewhat like the control center of the nervous system, and it gets all of its input from sensory organs that sends the output to all of our muscles. It also contains eighty six billion nerve cells or neurons that people refer to as “gray matter”, while the “white matter” has billions of nerve fibers. Nevertheless, the anatomy of the brain can be intricate yet simple if people actually put their minds to it.

First of all the cerebrum is the largest part of the human brain, and it is divided into two hemispheres. Underneath the cerebrum lies the brainstem, but behind that is where the cerebellum can be located. On the other hand the outermost layer of the cerebrum is the cerebral cortex that happens to contain four lobes which include the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and the occipital lobe. However the human brain can be broken it many more parts but it will always trace back to these six parts.

Although this is only a simple way of explaining the brain it can help you get a visual picture in your head of what it looks like, yet the actual brain development is much more interesting. To start off the brain develops from three sections which include the forebrain, mid brain, and hindbrain and they have fluid filled cavities called ventricles. While the forebrain develops into the cerebrum and underlying structures, the midbrain becomes part of the brainstem, and the hindbrain gives rise to parts of the brainstem and cerebellum.

However the cerebral cortex is greatly enlarged in the brain, and some consider it the place of complex thinking. The occipital lobe at that is located at the back of the skull is where visual processing happens. The language and sound that humans contain is in the temporal lobe, and it includes the hippocampus and amygdala which plays roles in memory, emotion, and respectively. On the other hand the lobe that interrogates input from different senses is the parietal lobe and it has crucial orientation and navigation.

Yet, the brainstem connects to the spinal cord, but its main function includes relaying information between the brain and body. Also preforms functions in controlling the heart, consciousness and breathing. The thalamus lies between the cerebrum and brainstem. As the thalamus relays sensory and motor signals to the cortex, it also involves administering consciousness, sleep, and alertness. Yet the cerebellum has critical functions in motor control it also plays roles in balance and coordination, may have cognitive functions.

Even though there are many parts to the brain memory is one of those things that humans hold closely to their hearts because of its value. Memory is one of those things in life that people try to hold on to forever or as long as possible, but in the Stroop Effects case we use a bit of it so we understand how to do it the next time around. What memory actually means is the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information (Dictionary. com). Nevertheless scientists found that it sometimes helps to divide memory into three sections, and that starts with the shortest memory that only lasts milliseconds called immediate memories.

However memories that last for only about a minute are called working memories, while ones that last for hours to years are referred to as long term memory. Although something that we also have to the think of while doing Stroop Effect is how much attention that we are putting forth. As human beings attention is not only about the things that we can focus on but also what we are able to block out. Most people are usually aware of the fact that that our attention can be both selective and limited when it comes to capacity.

By that it means that we choose what we pay attention because we are limited in what we truly can. Yet, since theories have been concentrated more on how we focus our attention but not as much on how We ignore certain things. Nevertheless practice will also have a huge impact of how our brain functions certain things because it helps people get that task locked inside of their brain. When people learn new skills they are rearranging the wiring inside of their brain. For instance to perform any type of task people have to activate various portions of the brain.

Therefore to start our brains coordinate a complex set of things involving our motor functions, visual and audio processing, verbal language skills, and numerous other parts. Next once the skill is learned completely it takes a moments to get a feel for them, but as we practice everything starts to fit into place like a giant puzzle. Myelination actually helps the human brain to make the best of certain coordinated activities. Yet, the white matter in our brains is referred to as myelin, a tissue, so scientists figured out that myelination accelerates momentum and strength of nerve impulses.

On the other hand color is one of the most important aspects to this research the way humans perceive it and how. First of all, color is the aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of light being reflected or emitted by them. Regardless the only way that people can actually see color is with light. When light shines on an object some colors don’t reflected, while others bounce off of the object. But, as humans we are only able to see the colors that have been reflected off of the object.

All light rays contain color, but light is made up of electromagnetic waves that can travel at exceeding speeds. That means that all colors have equally different wavelengths, and that happens to be the corresponding part of two waves. Although the reason humans are able to see color is because of special cells in our eyes that we refer to as cones. The light rays produced from the object hit the sensitive retina in the back of your eye, and that is where the cones come in. The cones are tiny cells in the retina that respond to light, and as humans we tend to possess about six to seven million of them.

Nevertheless there are many wonderful things about color, but those are just the basics of what it is and how humans see it. In conclusion, the Stroop Effect has several aspects that involve the brain because although it seems super simple it actually takes a lot of brain power. Yet when practice is put into play with this effect it people can start to understand and master this skill, but since practice rewires the brain it could cause a bit of interference with just naming regular colors. Although now it is truly clear how our mind can sometimes play tricks on us.