The Stroop effect is demonstrated by the reaction time to determine a color when the color is printed in a different color’s name. Participants respond slower or make more errors when the meaning of the word is incongruent with the color of the word. Despite knowing the meaning of the word, participants showed incapability of ignoring the stimulus attribute. This reflects a clear instance of semantic interference and an unfathomed failure of selective attention (Stroop, 1935).
In the study of the female chimpanzee Lana, the authors tested the Stroop-like effect with an animal to gather evidence from a nonverbal organism to provide additional information about the role of compatibility between response latency and performance accuracy. Lana was the first chimpanzee that was taught to associate lexigrams, which are geometric symbols to conduct experiments. She was later taught the arbitrary symbols so she could then label and categorize the color of random and novel stimuli. The testing procedure began by Lana responding to colored images in a computer screen by manipulating a joystick to move the cursor to her response.
Although there wasn’t any significant difference in response latency, her accuracy performance was significantly poorer. Lana’s Stroop-like effect supported the strength of association view and further supported the author’s suggestion that lexigrams operate “at a symbolic, word-like level for chimpanzees that are reared in environments where they are exposed to these lexigrams and that in such chimpanzees, these lexigrams might automatically evoke representations of their referents” (Beran, 2007).
In a study investigating psychopath offenders’ selective attention, 3 Stroop experiments were conducted: a standar...
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... Troglodyte). The Journal of general psychology, 134(2), 217.
Hiatt, K. D., Schmitt, W. A., & Newman, J. P. (2004). Stroop Tasks Reveal Abnormal Selective Attention Among Psychopathic Offenders. Neuropsychology, 18, 50-59.
Monahan, J. (2001). Coloring single Stroop elements: reducing automaticity or slowing color processing?. The Journal of General Psychology, 128(1), 98-112. doi: 10.1080/00221300109598901
Richards, Anne, Lucy C. Richards, and Anna McGeeney. "Anxiety-related Stroop interference in adolescents." The Journal of General Psychology 127.3 (2000): 327-33. OmniFile Full Text Mega. Web. 10 Sep. 2011.
Roelofs, A. (2005, December 1). The visual-auditory color-word Stroop asymmetry and its time course. Memory & cognition, 33(8), 1325.
Stroop, J. R. (1935). STUDIES OF INTERFERENCE IN SERIAL VERBAL REACTIONS. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643-662.
Despite the controversy circled with psychopathy within the courts, the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, or psychopathy is never successful. Instead it serves as a determining factor for the prison sentence since psychopathic offenders are more likely to offend again and not be deterred (Siegel &
To begin with, the purpose of the first experiment was to uncover which brain areas are associated with abnormal emotional processing and the subsequent disturbed social interactions that follow. The total amount of participants after excluding 2 due to artifacts was 12 right handed males. The control group was composed of 6 healthy males who had no history of neuropsychiatric problems, a mean age of 28.8, and standard deviation of 4.14. The experimental group was composed of 6 psychopathic individuals who were convicted criminals and taken from a high security psychiatric ward with a mean age of 33, and a standard deviation of 8. The researchers measured psychopathy by using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R [that measured psychopathy on a scale of 0-40]). They used the Positive and Negative Affect schedule (PANAS) to assess global affect states before conducting the experim...
However, Glenn and Raine (2014) argue that the emotional deficits characteristic of psychopaths diminish their rational capacity, making them unable to be held accountable for the rash and harmful decisions. Additionally, psychopaths may display knowledge of right and wrong, however their understanding is substantially compromised (Maibom 2005). Therefore, because they cannot understand moral emotions, moral transgressions fail to motivate them and they cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. They treat moral transgressions as equal to conventional transgressions (Levy 2008); to them, they are merely breaking the rules. And although breaking the rules begets consequences, a short attention span prevents psychopaths from anticipating consequences. Nevertheless, say, for example, a psychopath on a different portion of the spectrum is aware of the consequences. In this case, they would be still be indifferent because their feelings of grandeur lead them to believe that they are removed from punishment (Gao, Glenn, Schug, Yang, Raine 2009). For these reasons, many argue that psychopaths should not be held responsible for their behaviors.
...ce for increased activity in visual areas or the fusiform gyrus, which is connected with color perception. These results have shown that spoken words result in co-activation of color processing areas, but not visual areas connected with the perceptual process of color. Sadly, the conclusions don’t reveal which perceptual or cognitive processes might cause the difference with people with synaesthesia and the controls.
Riser, R. E., & Kosson, D. S. (2013). Criminal behavior and cognitive processing in male offenders with antisocial personality disorder with and without comorbid psychopathy. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 4(4), 332-340. doi:10.1037/a0033303
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations website, psychopathy has been described as the single most important clinical construct in the criminal justice system. It goes on to say that the need to understand psychopathy cannot be overstated (FBI, 2013.) From environmental influence to biology, psychopathy can be looked at from several different angles. This paper examines current thinking about how the brain and its structures contribute to psychopathy.
The introduction of the book introduces Dr. Robert Hare’s research on psychopaths. He and two graduate students wrote a paper detailing an experiment they preformed on a group of random adult males. They recorded the brain waves of the group doing a simple language activity.
...res of the psychopaths and gives the reader various examples of these individuals playing out these characteristics in everyday life. A widely used checklist is provided so the reader can get a wide spanning view of what is accounted for when scoring a psychopath. This form of research is very important within the deceitfulness of this population; it allows the professional to ignore their words and examine their actions. Hare made it clear that it is not uncommon for there to be an emotional and verbal disconnect from their actions. With virtually no emotional functioning psychopaths feel no remorse for the offenses that they commit and it is very important that we work towards using the opportunities we have to study and assist these populations; not only for them but for ourselves.
Miller, Laurence. "The predator's brain: Neuropsychodynamics of serial killers."Serial offenders: Current thought, recent findings, unusual syndromes (2000): 135-166.
Treisman, A. (1964). Monitoring and storage of irrelevant messages in selective attention. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 3(6): 449-459.
Cohen, Jon. "Thinking Like A Chimpanzee." Smithsonian 41.5 (2010): 50. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
The media most often showcases psychopaths as individuals who are inherently evil and dangerous towards themselves and others. Yet, this concept of psychopathy goes far beyond this idea of pure evil and instead necessitates a needed psychological understanding. These individuals, psychopaths, are generally characterized by a lack of empathy and conscience. Indeed, psychopath’s indifference to the repercussions of their actions combined with other characteristics such as hostility and aggression make for a potentially dangerous personality (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In order to identify a psychopath’s recidivism, it is important to differentiate them from sociopaths who, instead of having a psychological impairment that makes it difficult for them to socialize, have been systematically under socialized (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In accordance. psychologists have developed the methods such as the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) to help identify those with psychopathic tendencies (Walters, 2012, p.409). That is why predictions of recidivism among psychopaths is most efficient when done
A psychopath is someone who is unable to live harmoniously in society due to their profound lack of compassion, empathy, conscience, and remorse (Hare, 1993). Many psychopathic symptoms have been proposed to result from cognitive and emotional processing impairments. The concept of a psychopath is often of a ruthless and dangerous criminal, an image commonly depicted in the media and film. Though psychopaths do make up an estimated 40% of dangerous offenders in Canada, it is the non-violent manipulators and cheaters, like white-collar criminals and unethical business people, who can have the most impact on the general population (Bonta & Motiuk; 1996, Hare, 1993). Therefore, understanding the cognitive bases and development of psychopathy can allow exploration into possible interventions and treatments, as well as identifying measures for use in diagnosing psychopathy in childhood and adolescence. Additionally, the deciphering of abnormal processes can give insight into normal functioning, thus helping to expand current knowledge. This paper reviews conclusions that processing of
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