Question to answer in presentation:

Summarize the technique of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). Look up the 

Stroop effect, and describe an experiment in which you would interfere with (or 

enhance, if you prefer that) Stroop interference using TMS. What kind of brain area 

are you going to stimulate, and why?

 

In psychology, the Stroop effect is a demonstration of the reaction time of a task. When the name of a color (e.g., "blue," "green," or "red") is printed in a color not denoted by the name etx. Stimuli in Stroop paradigms can be divided into 3 groups: neutral, congruent and incongruent.

There are 3 recurring findings in Stroop tests:

1. semantic interference - naming is faster in neutral rather than incongruent conditions
2. Semantic facilitation - naming the ink of congruent stimuli is faster than with neutral stimuli.
3. Both semantic interference and facilitation disappear when the task consists in reading the word instead of naming the ink. It has been sometimes called Stroop asynchrony, and has been explained by a reduced automaticitation when naming colors compared to reading.