Visual Stroop Task Research Articles

Visual Inhibition Measures Predict Speech-in-Noise Perception Only in People With Low Levels of Education.

Inhibition—the ability to suppress goal-irrelevant information—is thought to be an important cognitive skill in many situations, including speech-in-noise (SiN) listening. Both inhibition and SiN perception are thought to worsen with age, but attempts to connect age-related declines in these two abilities have produced mixed results even though a clear positive relationship has generally been hypothesized. We suggest that these inconsistencies may occur because listener-based demographic variables such as educational attainment modulate the relationship between inhibition and SiN perception. We tested this hypothesis with a group of 50 older adults (61–86 years, mean: 69.5) with mild-to-moderate age-related hearing loss (8–53 average dB HL, mean: 25.3 dB HL). Participants performed a visual Stroop task and two SiN tasks. In a Stroop task one stimulus dimension is named while a second, more prepotent dimension is ignored. Results show a clear influence of educational attainment on the relationship of visual Stroop scores to SiN performance, but only for those with lower levels of education. These findings highlight for the first time the importance of considering potentially heterogeneous demographic listener variables when analyzing cognitive tasks and their relationship to SiN perception.

Haptic information provided by anchors and the presence of cognitive tasks contribute separately to reducing postural sway in young adults

BackgroundHaptic information provided by the anchors reduces postural sway while standing upright. It is unclear whether this benefit would remain in the presence of cognitive tasks combined with a more challenging postural task. Research questionOur aim was to investigate the effects of the anchors and visual and auditory cognitive tasks on postural control in young adults in a challenging balancing task. MethodsTwenty young adults stood upright on a balance beam with the central portion of each foot placed over the beam and feet at shoulder width without and with the use of the anchors in three cognitive conditions: control, visual Stroop task, and auditory digit-monitoring task. Each anchor consisted of a flexible cable with a light load (125 g) attached at one end of the cable. With the anchors, the participants held the flexible cable in each hand with the light load resting on the ground while keeping tension in the cable. ResultsBoth visual and auditory cognitive tasks reduced the center of pressure (COP) ellipse area, the root mean square of the margin of dynamic stability (based on the extrapolated center of mass, COM) and increased the COM time-to-contact relative to the boundaries of the base of support in the AP direction. The anchors reduced the COP ellipse area. SignificanceThere is a functional integration between postural control and cognitive tasks, such that postural sway was reduced to facilitate the execution of the cognitive tasks. Anchors were effective in reducing postural sway, suggesting that haptic information was able to benefit postural control in a challenging balancing task regardless of the cognitive task.

Increasing Cognitive Interference Modulates the Amplitude of the Auditory Brainstem Response.

Despite the presence of efferent neural pathways from the cortex to brainstem, evidence for cognitive inhibition and sensory gating on the auditory brainstem has been mixed. Some previous studies have suggested auditory brainstem responses (ABR) can be affected by cognitive load whereas others have not. The present study explores if the ABR recorded from adults with normal hearing was affected by increased cognitive load involving cognitive interference. Within-subject repeated measures. Twenty young adults with normal hearing (ten females and ten males, aged 21-26 yr). ABRs were collected with and without cognitive load (a visual Stroop task). Two measures of cognitive interference, that is, the ability to suppress task-irrelevant input, were derived from the performance on the Stroop task. No main effect of cognitive load on ABR wave V amplitudes was found. Participants with higher cognitive interference showed increased response times and larger decreases in ABR wave V amplitudes from the no cognitive load to cognitive load conditions. The present study showed that ABR wave V amplitudes did not change with increased overall cognitive load (cognitive load with and without cognitive interference), but ABR amplitude was related to cognitive interference. Increased cognitive load in the form of increased cognitive interference could trigger cognitive inhibition and/or sensory gating to suppress the processing of task-irrelevant information at the level of the brainstem. This suppression could present as reduced ABR wave V amplitudes.

Centre of pressure during quiet stance and dual-task one month after mild traumatic brain injury: In adolescents

Background Mild traumatic brain injury is a common neurological condition affecting adolescents in North America. In adults, symptoms related to balance are some of the most commonly reported. Methods The purpose of this study was to investigate the balance in adolescents with mild traumatic brain injury using linear and non-linear centre of pressure (COP) measures in quiet stance and during dual-task. Adolescents aged 13.00 to 17.99 years were tested once at one month following mild traumatic brain injury (n = 25), and healthy adolescents (n = 22) were tested once as controls in four conditions: standing with eyes open, standing with eyes closed, standing on a single leg and standing while performing a visual Stroop task. Results In general, compared to healthy adolescents, adolescents with mild traumatic brain injury demonstrated more variability ( p = 0.007, 95% CI (0.9, 5.4) and p = 0.049, 95% CI (0.009, 4.0), mediolateral and anteroposterior, respectively), showed more cumulative movement (path length, p = 0.016, 95% CI (1.3, 11.9)) and required greater speed of movement ( p = 0.012, 95% CI (0.99, 7.4) and p = 0.035, 95% CI (0.28, 7.5), mediolateral and anteroposterior, respectively) in maintaining balance, and in underlying temporal organization showed less local stability (mediolateral largest Lyapunov, p = 0.033, 95% CI (0.001, 0.027)), more short-term complexity anteroposteriorly ( p = 0.029, 95% CI (0.005, 0.099)) and less long-term complexity mediolaterally ( p = 0.001, 95% CI (0.015, 0.056)). Condition differences are additionally presented. Conclusions Findings suggest that, for adolescents with mild traumatic brain injury, when maintaining balance visual input is relied on differently, the effectiveness of control may be an issue during dual-task, and consequently, the challenge of dual-task may be on par with single leg stance.

Measuring the effects of a visual or auditory Stroop task on dual-task costs during obstacle crossing

Successful planning and execution of motor strategies while concurrently performing a cognitive task has been previously examined, but unfortunately the varied and numerous cognitive tasks studied has limited our fundamental understanding of how the central nervous system successfully integrates and executes these tasks simultaneously. To gain a better understanding of these mechanisms we used a set of cognitive tasks requiring similar central executive function processes and response outputs but requiring different perceptual mechanisms to perform the motor task. Thirteen healthy young adults (20.6±1.6years old) were instrumented with kinematic markers (60Hz) and completed 5 practice, 10 single-task obstacle walking trials and two 40 trial experimental blocks. Each block contained 20 trials of seated (single-task) trials followed by 20 cognitive and obstacle (30% lower leg length) crossing trials (dual-task). Blocks were randomly presented and included either an auditory Stroop task (AST; central interference only) or a visual Stroop task (VST; combined central and structural interference). Higher accuracy rates and shorter response times were observed for the VST versus AST single-task trials (p<0.05). Conversely, for the obstacle stepping performance, larger dual task costs were observed for the VST as compared to the AST for clearance measures (the VST induced larger clearance values for both the leading and trailing feet), indicating VST tasks caused greater interference for obstacle crossing (p<0.05). These results supported the hypothesis that structural interference has a larger effect on motor performance in a dual-task situation compared to cognitive tasks that pose interference at only the central processing stage.

EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT VISUAL ATTENTION TASKS ON OBSTACLE CROSSING IN HEALTHY YOUNG ADULTS

Dual-task obstacle crossing gait paradigms are commonly adopted to examine how attentional demands are associated with sensory-motor processing during obstacle crossing. Various attention tasks have been used with mixed findings. This raises a question whether and how different attention tasks would affect motor function differently. Therefore, we examined and compared the effects of two visual attention tasks on obstacle crossing in healthy young adults. In the first experiment, 10 young adults responded to a 200[Formula: see text]ms visuospatial attention task during the approaching phase of obstacle crossing. In the second experiment, another 10 young adults responded to a visual Stroop task while approaching and crossing an obstacle. In both experiments, subjects completed an obstacle crossing only, a visual attention only, or a dual-task obstacle crossing condition in a random order. Dual-task costs were calculated for each visual attention task on the accuracy rates, toe-obstacle clearances and gait velocities. Two tripping incidences occurred only in the dual-task condition with visuospital attention task. Trailing toe-obstacle clearance reduced in the dual-task condition with visuospital attention task, but toe-obstacle clearances of both limbs increased in the dual-task condition with Stroop task. Gait velocities were not affected by the visuospatial attention task but were significantly reduced when concurrently performing the Stroop task. Dual-task costs were significantly different between two experiments on the gait velocity and toe clearances, but not on the accuracy rate. Our findings demonstrated that different visual attention tasks lead to distinct modifications on obstacle crossing behaviors.

The Role of Visual Stimuli in Cross-Modal Stroop Interference.

It has long been known that naming the color of a color word leads to what is known as the Stroop effect (Stroop, 1935). In the traditional Stroop task, when compared to naming the color of a color-neutral stimulus (e.g. an X or color patch), the presence of an incongruent color word decreases performance (Stroop interference), and a congruent color word increases performance (Stroop facilitation). Research has also shown that auditory color words can impact the color naming performance of colored items in a similar way in a variation known as cross-modal Stroop (Cowan & Barron, 1987). However, whether the item that is colored interacts with the auditory distractor to affect cross-modal Stroop interference is unclear. Research with the traditional, visual Stroop task has suggested that the amount of color the visual item displays and the semantic and phonetic components of the colored word can affect the magnitude of the resulting Stroop interference; as such, it is possible the same components could play a role in cross-modal Stroop interference. We conducted two experiments to examine the impact of the composition of the colored visual item on cross-modal Stroop interference. However, across two different experiments, three test versions, and numerous sets of trials, we were only able to find a small effect of the visual stimulus. This finding suggests that while the impact of the auditory stimuli is consistent and robust, the influence of non-word visual stimuli is quite small and unreliable and, while occasionally being statistically significant, it is not practically so.

The division of visual attention affects the transition point from level walking to stair descent in healthy, active older adults

BackgroundStair descent is a frequent daily activity that poses great risks for injury due to falling. Very little is understood about the attentional demands of stair descent and their changes with aging. The present study compared combined locomotor and cognitive functioning during different phases of stair descent between healthy young and older individuals. MethodsSixteen young and sixteen healthy older subjects walked down a 5-step staircase, performing a simultaneous visual Stroop task (i.e., a dual task) during the approach, transition or steady-state descent phases in some trials. Three dimensional kinematics of trunk and foot motion were recorded along with the accuracy and dual task costs (DTCs) for responses to the Stroop stimuli. ResultsDual tasking influenced both gait and cognitive performance for all subjects, and older adults generally walked slower with higher foot clearances and had greater DTCs. Specific age differences were found at stair transition where older adults showed more attentional effects. ConclusionsHealthy, active older adults showed changes to attention and planning due to normal aging specifically associated with a crucial point of fall risk during stair descent.

Is conflict monitoring supramodal? Spatiotemporal dynamics of cognitive control processes in an auditory Stroop task

The electrophysiological correlates of conflict processing and cognitive control have been well characterized for the visual modality in paradigms such as the Stroop task. Much less is known about corresponding processes in the auditory modality. Here, electroencephalographic recordings of brain activity were measured during an auditory Stroop task, using three different forms of behavioral response (overt verbal, covert verbal, and manual), that closely paralleled our previous visual Stroop study. As was expected, behavioral responses were slower and less accurate for incongruent than for congruent trials. Neurally, incongruent trials showed an enhanced fronto-central negative polarity wave (N(inc)), similar to the N450 in visual Stroop tasks, with similar variations as a function of behavioral response mode, but peaking ~150ms earlier, followed by an enhanced positive posterior wave. In addition, sequential behavioral and neural effects were observed that supported the conflict-monitoring and cognitive adjustment hypothesis. Thus, while some aspects of the conflict detection processes, such as timing, may be modality dependent, the general mechanisms would appear to be supramodal.

Activation of the caudal anterior cingulate cortex due to task‐related interference in an auditory Stroop paradigm

Successful information processing requires the focusing of attention on a certain stimulus property and the simultaneous suppression of irrelevant information. The Stroop task is a useful paradigm to study such attentional top-down control in the presence of interference. Here, we investigated the neural correlates of an auditory Stroop task using fMRI. Subjects focused either on tone pitch (relatively high or low; phonetic task) or on the meaning of a spoken word (high/low/good; semantic task), while ignoring the other stimulus feature. We differentiated between task-related (phonetic incongruent vs. semantic incongruent) and sensory-level interference (phonetic incongruent vs. phonetic congruent). Task-related interference activated similar regions as in visual Stroop tasks, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the presupplementary motor-area (pre-SMA). More specifically, we observed that the very caudal/posterior part of the ACC was activated and not the dorsal/anterior region. Because identical stimuli but different task demands are compared in this contrast, it reflects conflict at a relatively high processing level. A more conventional contrast between incongruent and congruent phonetic trials was associated with a different cluster in the pre-SMA/ACC which was observed in a large number of previous studies. Finally, functional connectivity analysis revealed that activity within the regions activated in the phonetic incongruent vs. semantic incongruent contrast was more strongly interrelated during semantically vs. phonetically incongruent trials. Taken together, we found (besides activation of regions well-known from visual Stroop tasks) activation of the very caudal and posterior part of the ACC due to task-related interference in an auditory Stroop task.

Cross-modal, auditory-visual Stroop interference: a reply to Cowan and Barron (1987).

This series of experiments was performed to verify Cowan and Barron's (1987) reported effect of auditory color-word interference on a visual Stroop task. Extant theory predicts effects of irrelevant speech on visual memory tasks involving immediate, ordered recall of the items. Interference between the two sources of information (visual and auditory) is assumed to be located at the phonological store component of the articulatory loop. Perceptual tasks such as the Stroop task, which do not require use of the articulatory loop for rehearsal purposes, should not be similarly susceptible. The present data fail to replicate Cowan and Barron's findings, and are thus consistent with contemporary theory.

Cross-modal, auditory-visual Stroop interference and possible implications for speech memory.

This study examines effects of auditory color-word interference on a visual Stroop task with a spoken response. The presence of cross-modal interference indicates that subjects could not prevent the processing of irrelevant, spoken color words. Additional aspects of the results (e.g., lack of effects from noncolor items and additivity of auditory and visual interference) are used to support a description of processing in which multiple verbal items enter a prespeech buffer and a selection mechanism examines buffer items in parallel.