STROOP VERSUS STROOP - COMPARISON OF A CARD FORMAT AND A SINGLE-TRIALFORMAT OF THE STANDARD COLOR-WORD STROOP TASK AND THE EMOTIONAL STROOP TASK

The card format and the single-trial format of the Stroop task are use d alternately for the same purposes in general cognitive studies and i n emotion studies. However, no convergent validity or test-retest reli ability has ever been shown. In the present study, a card format and a single-trial format of a standard color-word Stroop and an emotional Stroop (i.e. spider words) were administered to a normal sample and re -administered after 3 months. Neither for the standard Stroop effect, nor the emotional Stroop effect, was there convergence between the two formats. The test-retest reliability of the standard Stroop effects o f both formats was low but significant and the test-retest reliability of the emotional Stroop effects was very low. The results suggest tha t the two formats measure different underlying mechanisms and that bot h mechanisms are unstable. It is concluded that the application of cog nitive paradigms within emotional research is of value if combined wit h the appropriate psychometric research. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier S cience Ltd.