Psychology

Cognition and learning
     Cognition is the mental process of knowing something either through awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.  This is how somebody can claim to know something. Learning is closely linked with cognition. Learning can be said to be the process of acquiring new knowledge, skills, behaviors, values and understanding. (Brown et al, 1989).

    In psychology stroop effect is understood to be a demonstration of the reaction time of a particular task. This theory is named after its author John Ridley Stroop who first published it in English language 1935.

    According to the theory, it is easier to teach primary colors to schools children by naming the color  being learnt by  for example when teaching children color blue, it is important to write the word blue using the same color using a word printed in the same color. When a color is named using a different color for example when a word such as red is printed in color green learning the color take longer and is prone to mistakes than when it is named with the same color.( Brown et al, 1989)

    In the medical field the stroop effect have been found to be effective in testing selective attention so as to know whether a patient is suffering from brain damage or even detect brain diseases. This is done by asking the patient to name the color of an object painted a different color. For example a red cup but its name is printe3d in white. The patient is asked to name the color of the cup and also say the color of the letters used to print the name cup. The stroop effect has proved to be very effective in clinical functions.

    Similarly the stroop effect can also be used by policemen to test the attention of driver on the highways. This is can be done painting a card in a certain color and then writing the meaning of that color in traffic.  For example a red card written in green get ready to move. When a driver is asked to say the meaning of color red in traffic, it will take a longer time to process and those who have not mastered the meaning of traffic lights will be caught easily.