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MENTAL MODEL · M4154

Emotional Stroop Effect

Emotional Stroop Effect
Learn & MetacognitionHigh supportCognitive Psychology
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Updated 2026-08-08

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

The emotional Stroop effect was adapted from the classic Stroop task by Andrew Mathews and Colin MacLeod in the 1980s. In the task, participants name the ink color of words while ignoring their meaning. Emotionally salient words, particularly threat words relevant to the participant's concerns, produce slower color naming than neutral words. The delay is interpreted as attentional capture by emotional content. The key qualification is that the effect is strongest for personally relevant material and in clinical populations, and it is a marker of processing bias rather than a measure of emotion itself.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

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- Probe the bias: use reaction time to see which concerns capture attention automatically. - Train the override: practice returning attention to the task after a trigger. - Compare profiles: contrast clinical and control groups to quantify attentional bias.

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Reading is automatic for literate adults, so word meaning is processed even when the task requires ignoring it. Threat-relevant meaning triggers a rapid alerting response that draws processing resources away from the color-naming task, slowing the response. The more the content matches a person's current concerns, the stronger the pull, which is why the effect indexes what the mind is monitoring rather than how the person feels in general.

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Source support: Explicit

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    en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_Stroop_testZH · Explicit
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