Stroop effect helps put Vanderbilt on psychology map

by David F. Salisbury
If the word "red" is written in green, it is significantly easier to name the word "red" than it is to name the color in which it is written, in this case "green."

That is the essence of the Stroop effect, which was discovered in the 1930’s by John Ridley Stroop as part of his doctoral thesis in psychology at George Peabody College for Teachers, which is now part of Vanderbilt. The discovery, which was published in 1935, has become a classic taught introductory psychology courses in universities around the world. Even more importantly it is finding an ever widening circle of research and clinical applications.

Last Saturday, Sept. 28, about 60 people – including Stroop’s three sons and their wives – gathered on the Peabody Campus at the Kennedy Center for a “StroopFest” organized to honor this increasingly important psychological effect and its extraordinary discoverer, a man who was born on a farm 40 miles from Nashville, who is the only person in his family to go to college let alone get a doctoral degree, began preaching the gospel when he was 20 years old and continued throughout his life, and spent nearly 40 years as a teacher and administrator at the David Lipscomb College in Nashville.

Since 1965 Stroop’s paper has been cited more than 2,600 times in the scientific literature, but it was a long time before its importance was recognized. “In science, small acorns can lead to important scientific principles, said John Rieser, professor of psychology and human development, who organized the meeting with Gordon Logan, Centennial Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt. “In the case of J. Ridley Stroop’s work, the germination period was unusually long, about 35 years.”

Logan posed the question, “Why is Stroop so famous?” His answer: “It is simple, elegant and profound.”

In the realm of cognitive psychology, the Stroop effect and the variations that have been developed on the original theme have found increasing importance because they represent a unique window into the interplay between mental processes that are automatic and those that are under conscious control. And, in a time when new tools like brain mapping and methods like computational modeling have begun spanning the divide between cognitive psychology and neuroscience, the Stroop test “is playing an important role in linking mind and brain,” commented Jonathan Cohen of Princeton, one of the speakers at the meeting.

The growing use of Stroop’s discovery is finding widespread clinical application as well. “It’s not just an intellectual curiosity that keeps academics occupied,” added Colin MacLeod from the University of Toronto at Scarborough who has been using the effect to explore aspects of attention, memory and “automaticity” for the last 20 years. Because the effect only shows up in fluent readers, a picture version is being used to diagnose children with learning disabilities. In clinical psychology it is being used to identify phobias: If Joe is afraid of spiders, it takes him longer to identify the color that associated words such as “web” or “crawly” are printed. It is also used to diagnose individuals with schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder. In many drug trials it is used as a general test to determine if the ingredients have any effect on people’s cognitive abilities.

By all accounts, John Ridley Stroop was as extraordinary as the effect he discovered. “He was a real Renaissance man: He did many things and he did them all extremely well,” Logan said. At the end of the symposium, Stroop’s son, Fred, provided participants with a colorful account of his father’s life.

Stroop was born in 1897 on a farm in Hall’s Hill, the fifth of sixth children. Because he was a frail child he didn’t start school until age seven, but he graduated at the top of the class in 10th grade, the highest grade taught in the school. Selling a horse and two cows, a crop of potatoes and with a $40 loan from his father, he moved to Nashville to complete his schooling. By working as a janitor and librarian, he put himself through the last two years of high school and two years of college.

After graduating as a valedictorian from David Lipscomb College, he married Lipscomb’s great niece who was living on campus with his widow and attending classes. Shortly thereafter he got a job at the college teaching mathematics and English. At various times he also taught French, German and Spanish. He enrolled in Peabody College where he obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree. He raised potatoes at Lipscomb to supplement his income and he preached regularly on Sundays, receiving payments ranging from nothing to five dollars per service.

In 1928 Stroop enrolled in a doctoral program at Peabody. The College had established a national reputation in psychology. Jessup Hall was the first building in the country built specifically for psychological research. His advisor, Joseph Peterson, was an eminent psychologist who did early work in auditory and visual perception, learning, intelligence testing and the transfer of training and was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1934.

Stroop suffered from flu and bronchial problems in the winter, so he rented his house and moved his family to Arizona before completing his dissertation. When he introduced himself at the University of Arizona and asked for permission to continue work on his dissertation, Peterson’s stood him in good stead and he was able to finish his studies.

He moved back to Tennessee in 1933, the year that he received his doctorate. It was the middle of the depression and jobs were scarce. After teaching psychology at Tennessee Polytechnic Institute and serving as a high school principal, he returned to Lipscomb as an advisor, dean and finally registrar. In this position, he shepherded the college through the certification process and the transition from a two- to a four-year college. He taught psychology and Bible studies.

In the 1940’s, Stroop began lecturing and writing popular books on Biblical topics. In later years his interests moved increasingly from psychology to religion. When asked about this shift, he would explain that “Jesus was the greatest psychologist on Earth.”

He died in 1973 in Nashville at the age of 76 from complications following prostate surgery.

Posted 10//02 at 10 a.m.