S HAPE YOUR THOUGHTS By Chartrece Carpenter 1 st period science Mr. Leingang

Q UESTION How does the type of gender effect the time it takes to process the name of a shape ?

H YPOTHESIS As the two genders look at a piece of a shape with a shape name inside then the boys will process the name of the shape faster because guys aren’t as easily distracted as girls are.

MATERIALS You will need, 1 timer 4 people : 2 boys and 2 girls ; Teens : piece of paper with the 4 basic shapes[ circle triangle square and rectangle] with correct name of shape inside 1 piece of paper with the 4 basic shapes and the name of the shapes inside the wrong shape rectangle

THE VARIABLES Manipulated Variable : Words inside shape Responding Variable : Time to process name of shape Controlled Variables : Gender Number of boys/girls Age group Number of teens Size of shape Font size

P ROCEDURE 1. Set up as shown in diagram 2. Start with the shape hand out with correct name/shape 3. Start timer when student begins to name shapes 4. Keep time in seconds 5. Stop timer when student is done 6. Record amount of seconds it took the student to name the shapes 7. Switch student each time 8. Repeat steps 1-7 for trials 2 & 3 9. After 3 trials, switch handout from correct name/shape to incorrect name/shape 10. Repeat steps 3-9 for trials 2 & 3

ABSTRACT The purpose of my project is to see which gender can process the name of a shape faster while there is the distraction of a different name of a shape inside the shape. What I believe will happen is that the boys will process the correct name of the shape faster because they aren’t as easily distracted as girls. What I discovered after all test were completed was that I was incorrect. Girls can process the correct name of a shape with a distraction. There wasn’t any major nor minor errors in my project.

S UBJECTS VS. TIME Subjec ts Time(s ec’s) Trial 1 Time(s ec’s) Trial 2 Time(s ec’s) Trial 3 Time(s ec’s) Averag e Lisha Tatum Josh Ricard o Subjec ts Time(s ec’s) Trial 1 Time(s ec’s) Trial 2 Time(s ec’s) Trial 3 Time(s ec’s) Averag e Lisha Tatu m 3122 Josh Ricard o 4233 Correct wordingIncorrect wording

C ONCLUSION My hypothesis was “As the two genders look at a piece of a shape with a shape name inside then the boys will process the name of the shape faster because guys aren’t as easily distracted as girls are. “ and my hypothesis was incorrect. My data showed that the girls fastest time for the correct wording was one second. And their slowest time was two seconds. The average time for the girls was 1.3 seconds. For the boys, fastest time was one second. And the slowest time was two seconds. The average time for the boys is 1.3 seconds. The fastest time the girls had for the incorrect wording was one second. Their slowest time was three seconds. The boys fastest time was one second and the slowest time was four seconds. This proves that girls can process the correct name of a shape faster than guys with the distraction of the incorrect/correct name inside.

B ACKROUND I NFO In the world of psychology, the Stroop effect is a demonstration of the reaction time of a task. When a word such as green, yellow, pink, etc. is printed in a color differing from the color expressed by the word's semantic meaning (e.g. the word “blue" printed in yellow ink), naming the color of the word would take longer and is more prone to errors than when the meaning of the word is congruent with its ink color. The effect is named after John Ridley Stroop. He first published the effect in English in The effect had previously been published in Those copies were only in German. His original paper has been one of the most cited papers in the history of experimental psychology, leading to over 700 replications. The effect has been used to create a psychological test which is widely used in clinical practice and investigation. The test has also been further modified to investigate very different phenomena. This project is also a very popular science fair project for young teens.