The context-specific proportion congruent Stroop effect: Location as a contextual cue

The Stroop effect has been shown to depend on the relative proportion of congruent and incongruent trials. This effect is commonly attributed to experiment-wide word-reading strategies that change as a function of proportion congruent. Recently, Jacoby, Lindsay, and Hessels (2003) reported an itemspecific proportion congruent effect that cannot be due to these strategies and instead may reflect rapid, stimulus driven control over word-reading processes. However, an item-specific proportion congruent effect may also reflect learned associations between color word identities and responses. In two experiments, we demonstrate a context-specific proportion congruent effect that cannot be explained by such word—response associations. Our results suggest that processes other than learning of word—response associations can produce contextual control over Stroop interference.