, p. 190). The text continues to describes the basic theory of the Stroop Effect by outlining the topic of perception, stating, "when a word or other perceptual event biases the observer to perceive a subsequent event in a particular way" (Experimental Psychology, 9th ed., p. 190). .
The Stroop effect says that it should take longer to complete the Stroop task than the reading task due to the dominant response. Stroop Effect can be used to test Social Facilitation theory by completing the Stoop task alone and then the Reading task alone, with times for each correct completion of the task recorded. To continue this into use of both theories, the same participant will then complete the same two tasks in a group with an audience and will be timed again for each on correct completion. The Social Facilitation aspect will be tested by analyzing the times of group scores compared to alone scores to identify if the presence of the group had an effect on the length of time it took to complete the tasks. .
It was hypothesized that Social Facilitation Theory says that the presence of others should increase the likelihood of the dominant response, which is to read instead of identify the color of the word, which leads to the prediction that the Reading task would go faster and Stroop task would take longer in the presence of others. To test the hypothesis, the participants will complete the Stroop task and Reading task alone and then again in a group audience setting. Times for both settings will be recorded and analyzed. .
Method.
Participants .
The participants of this study were 15 college students all enrolled in an Experimental Psychology Class. All participants were asked to complete two tasks, the Reading Task and the Stroop Task. The students did these exercises one at a time. The first time the student was in a room with the instructor and no one else. The student was given the Reading Task paper and asked to read it completely and correctly and timed in seconds.
