Method Case

Method

Participants

There were 36 total participants (34 female, 2 male, age range: 19-30 years). The participants were college students enrolled in a research methods course in human development program at California State University, Long Beach. Only 32 participants' data was analyzed, because of missing data. This was not a random sampling study. The participants were selected by a convenience sample. The incentive for participating in this study was course credit, namely participation points for the lab portion of class.

Design

This study was a one-way, within-subjects design. The independent variable was the presentation of ink color on a board. There were two levels of the independent variable. One level was the interference condition (i.e., condition I), which was a board with color words printed in nonmatching ink colors. The second level was the neutral condition (i.e., condition N), which was noun words printed on a board. This was nominal variable. The dependent variable was the time in seconds it took to name the ink color of the printed words. This was a ratio variable.

Instruments and Materials

Two stopwatches were used to record the time it took participants to name the ink colors of the printed words. Each of the 36 participants had a record sheet, which were used for two purposes. First, to identify the order of conditions. The record sheet would either list condition I first or condition N first. Second, the record sheet was used to write down the participants' time for each condition. Two separate rooms were used to conduct the experiment. Purple tape was used to mark a spot on the ground three feet from the boards. Two identical instruction sheets were used, so that the researcher would give the exact same instructions for both conditions. Two visual boards were used, with the purpose of presenting the stimuli.

The two boards used for this experiment were 11 cm X 17 size and white in color. There were 20 words printed on each board. Each board displayed the words in two columns with 10 words in each column. There were five different ink colors (i.e., green, red, yellow, blue, and black), displayed on the boards. Each color was repeated four times. The process of block randomization was used to assign ink color to printed words. There were four blocks with five words in each block. Each ink color appeared only once in each block and did repeat across the blocks. For the experimental board (i.e., condition I), there were five color words (i.e., green, red, yellow, blue, and black) that were repeated four times. Block randomization was also applied to these words, so that each color word appeared only once in each block and did not repeat across the blocks. Also, the color word was never printed in the same color as the ink color. For the control board (i.e., condition N), there were five noun words (i.e., grape, rat, yogurt, bear, and brain) that repeated four times. These nouns were systematically