Nervous System

Experiment 1: Colors, Colors

The famous “Stroop Effect” is named after J. Ridley Stroop who discovered a strange phenomenon in the 1930s. Here is your job: name the colors of the following words. Do NOT read the words…rather; say the color of the words. For example, if the word “BLUE” is printed in a red color, you should say “RED”. Say the colors as fast as you can.

https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/ready.html

1. Collect data (time) on yourself for the first set of cards and the second set of cards.

2. Post you results on the Lab discussion board.

3. Collect results from four other classmates and use it to complete table 1 and the questions below.

Table 1: Stroop Effect Test

Student

Word   Set #1 (sec)

Word   Set #2 (sec)

Average   Time:

Questions:

1. Did you find that people could more quickly go through the set of cards with the words written in matching ink compared with words that were written in a different color ink?

2. How much variation was there among students within your “group”?

3. What relationship seems to exist between word meaning and word color?

4. What type of results would you expect if you tested a toddler that could recognize color but not words?

5. Can this kind of effect be replicated with other stimuli? Can an auditory Stroop effect be created?

Experiment 2: Reaction Time

Reaction time is the time between a stimulus and your response. Your nervous system processes the stimulus before you are able to react, and the time lag is your reaction time. Stimuli could be visual (sight), auditory (hearing), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell) or gustatory (taste). In this experiment, you will be measuring your reaction time when presented with two different visual stimulation activities.

Hit-the-dot activity: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/dottime.html

Stoplight activity: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/stopl.html

1. Collect data (time) on yourself for the two different activities.

2. Post you results on the Lab 9 discussion board.

3. Collect results from four other classmates and use it to complete table 2, table 3, and the questions below.

Table 2: Hit-the-Dot Activity

Student

Trial   1

Trial   2

Trial   3

Average

Table 3: Stoplight Activity

Student

Trial   1

Trial   2

Trial   3

Trial   4

Trail   5

Average

Questions:

1. Why did you find an average time? In other words, how is averaging useful?

2. What pathway does the stimuli for the different activities have to follow through the nervous system? (Hint: eyes à ….)

3. Did you find that some people are better at one activity compared to the other? Why might this be?

4. What might affect your reaction time?

5. Could you improve your reaction time? How?