The Association Between Caffeine Intake and the Stroop Effect

Caffeine consumption is closely related to different aspects of life. With different cultures and different routines, caffeine consumers will form their own habits of consumption. Inhibition control will be affected by caffeine consumption. It is an important executive function for human beings. The Stroop Effect is a classic cognitive phenomenon which exists from The Stroop Colour and Word Test (SCWT), to explore the interference between automatic and controlled processing of information. Caffeine as an attention enhancer, helps to increase the speed of making decisions and the rate of detecting stimuli. This review paper aims to investigate the potential correlation between caffeine intake and performance on the Stroop task. By reviewing the most recent research paper in this field, the impacts of caffeine consumption manipulating the Stroop task result were summarized and interpreted. The overall effect of caffeine intake on attentional control is supported by attentional control after caffeine intake, this includes the evidence of cognitive behaviour outcomes and neuroimaging. In addition, the overall effect depends on the dosage of caffeine intake, with different dosages, the test result will be significantly different. Results show that caffeine consumption will influence attentional control, mainly refleted by Reaction Time (RT), neuroimage and depends on the dosage. However, individual differences will highly affect the caffeine absorption. The outcome of this research will have implications for future research exploring the Stroop task performance help to evaluate the other sides of cognitive control, such as emotional control.