Effect of Spatial Location on Emotional Conflict in the Faces - Word Stroop Paradigm
Ai-hua Tao, Chen Zhou

Introduction
This study focuses on effect of spatial location on emotional conflict in the Faces - word Stroop paradigm. This study contains two experiments. In Experiment 1, we investigated the mechanisms of influences of spatial location on emotional conflict by using the Faces - word Stroop paradigm and 2×3×2 within-group design. Independent variable 1 is the task type ("face task" and "word task"). The independent variable 2 is the consistency of the meaning of the facial emotion and the emotion word. The independent variable 3 is the spatial position (upper, middle and below) of the emotional word. The mean correct rate and the mean response time were used as dependent variables. Results showed that in the case of correct rate, the main effect of consistency is very significant, but the main effect of spatial location and task type is not significant. The interaction of face - word task, spatial position, and consistency is not significant. In the reaction time, the main effect of consistency is not significant. The main effect of task type is significant. The reaction time of the face task is longer than that of the word task. In Experiment 2, the experimental paradigm and experiment design are the same as experiment 1. The independent variable 1 is the time (150ms or 1500ms), the independent variable 2 is the meaning of the face and the emotional words (consistent, inconsistent), the independent variable 3 is the spatial position of the emotional word (upper, middle and below). The mean correct rate and the mean response time were used as dependent variables. Results showed that in terms of correct rate, the main effect of consistency is significant, and the correct rate is significantly higher than the rate of inconsistency. The main effect of spatial location is significant, and the correct rate of the middle position is higher than that of the upper and lower position. When the reaction time is concerned, the main effect of consistency is not significant, the main effect of presentation time is extremely significant, and the correct rate is higher when the time is longer.

Full Text: PDF