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Trial lecture
Time and place
Adjudication committee
- 1. opponent: Professor Iring Koch, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
- 2. opponent: Associate Professor Sachiko Kinoshita, Macquarie University, Australia
- Chair of the committee: Associate Professor Vanja Kljajevic, department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo
Chair of defence
Professor Henrik Daae Zachrisson, department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo
Supervisor
- Professor Athanassios Protopapas, department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo
Summary:
This dissertation is grounded on the notion of automaticity and focuses on one of the most popular tasks in the domain of experimental psychology, that is, the Stroop task. The aim of the dissertation was to examine a) the impact of nearby-items interference and cognitive control in the course of single-item and multi-item Stroop tasks and b) the format dependence of the well-established relationship between Stroop interference and reading. All studies were carried out in Greece.
To serve the first goal, two experimental studies were conducted in adults and children. The main hypothesis stated that, if nearby-items interference exists, it could challenge the cognitive control system due to multi-tasking requirements. The results of both studies revealed that within-task performance was challenged only in the multi-item version of the task and this was reflected in behavioral and eye-tracking measures.
For the second goal, a correlational study was conducted, in which previously collected data from adults and children were analyzed. The main hypothesis was that, if a direct link between interference and the speed of inhibition exists, as previously proposed, it should apply regardless of the format of the Stroop task (multi-item vs single-item) used. The results of this study indicated that reading performance was primarily related to the multi-item version of the Stroop task and not to the single-item version, questioning the direct link between Stroop interference and reading.
Overall, these findings indicate that performance in multi-item displays is not comparable to performance in isolated item presentation and justify the proposal for the existence of nearby-items interference in multi-item displays. A shift from a more parallel to a more serial processing as an attempt to mitigate the effect of nearby-items interference has been proposed, with this shift depending on reading ability. These findings contribute to our understanding of cognitive control implementation and reading processes under conditions posing differential demands on the individuals