5 ms·

Link to them please.

• tzs 15y ago
  I don't have a proper cite, but I saw on a TV show where they highlighted interesting researchers who were studying cognition and perception a very interesting experiment. One of the most interesting was a researcher who took subjects and measured the Stroop effect. In case some have not seen it, I'll describe the Stroop effect. The Stroop effect is the way the meaning of a printed word interferes with the perception of the attributes of the print. For instance, if you are shown words printed in colored ink, and asked to identify the color, you slow down significantly on words where the word is a color name. For instance, if you see the word "lamp" printed in blue, you have no trouble quickly saying blue. If you see the word "red" printed in blue, you want to say red, and there is a significant pause as you have to override that and say blue. Anyway, in the segment I'm thinking of, the researcher took people and hypnotized them, and told them that when they woke up they ware going to do the test, but all the words would be in a foreign language they did not understand. The subjects were woken up, and the test was done--in English. The subjects performed as fast on the color name words as they did on the other words, as if they could indeed no longer understand the meaning of the words. Hypnosis is often dismissed as the subject just wanting to please the hypnotist. So they cluck like a chicken when someone rings a bell because they want to appear cooperative and make him happy. OK, that could be. But how your brain prioritizes work meaning vs. word color when you are trying to decide what color to say is not something that you can change to please the hypnotist. It's not voluntary. If you are able to do the color name words as fast as the other words, it means something really has been changed in how your brian is processing.