VISUAL PERCEPTION OF THE NUMBER OF OBJECT: AN EXPERIMENT INVOLVING BILINGUALS
An experiment that involved the testing of bilingual subjects in a counting process involving visual perception was performed. The Stroop phenomenon, in which delay and disruption increases the difficulties associated with the visual perception of data, was specifically addressed in this experiment.
To test the hypotheses formulated for this study, a sample of bilingual students was selected to act as an experimental group, and an equally sized sample of unilingual students was selected to act as a control group. Each group experimental and control were required to perform identical tasks. The performance of the two groups was then assessed through the application of analysis of variance procedures. Two hypotheses were accepted and one hypothesis was rejected. The hypothesis positing that, when digits are stated in different ways, bilinguals will experience difficulties regardless of the specific task involved, was accepted. Similarly, the hypothesis positing that, when naming a number interferes with counting the number, bilinguals will require a longer time to complete the counting task, was also accepted. The hypothesis positing that, when more than one response output is required, bilinguals will require a longer time to complete the count, was, however, rejected.
The findings of this experiment are generally consistent with the literature. Further, the findings of this experiment reaffirm the validity of the Stroop phenomenon.
This experiment involved the testing of bilingual subjects in a counting process involving visual perception. Stroop (1935, pp. 643 662) described a phenomenon in which delay and disruption increases the difficulties associated with the visual perception of data.
In the latter years of the nineteenth century and in the first three decades of the twentieth century, several studies were conducted, which i...