EXPRESS: The Contribution of Meaning to the Detection of Task Conflict.

The color-word Stroop task produces both information conflict (detection of the ink color vs. word meaning) and task conflict (respond to the ink color vs. read the word). In the present study we measured both reaction time and pupil dilation, and the neutral stimuli in our study were non-readable letter strings as well as meaningless non-readable stimuli (i.e., colored patches and abstract character strings). Our results showed slowest responses in the incongruent trials and fastest responses in the congruent trials. However, no differences were found between the investigated neutrals. In contrast, pupil dilation was largest in the incongruent trials and smallest in the neutral trials. Moreover, the more the neutral stimuli were meaningless, the less the pupil dilation that was observed. Our results suggest that non-word meaningless stimuli reduced task conflict (compared to all the investigated conditions). Neutral equivalence should be taken into consideration in Stroop and Stroop-like tasks.