American International Journal of Social Science

Effect of Task Relevance on Emotional Conflict in the Faces - Word Stroop Paradigm
Ai-hua Tao, Qiu-fan Xu

Abstract
This study focused on effect of task relevance on emotional conflict in the Faces - word Stroop paradigm, and the effect of the time on the Stroop effect was also discussed. This study contained two experiments. In Experiment 1, we investigated the mechanisms of influences of task relevance on emotional conflict by using the Faces - word Stroop paradigm. Independent variable 1 was the task type ("face task" and "word task"). The independent variable 2 was the consistency of the meaning of the facial emotion and the emotion word. The independent variable 3 was task relevance (relevant, unrelated). Results showed that in the reaction time, the main effects of task correlation, task type and consistency were significant. The interaction of the task type and the correlation, the consistency and the correlation was significant. In Experiment 2, the experimental paradigm and experiment design were the same as experiment 1. The independent variable 1 was the time (150ms or 1500ms), the independent variable 2 was the meaning of the face and the emotional words (consistent, inconsistent), the independent variable 3 was task relevance (relevant, unrelated). Results showed that in terms of the reaction time, the main effect of consistency, task correlation, presentation time was extremely significant. The interaction of presentation time and the correlation, presentation time and the consistency, the consistency and the correlation was significant.

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