Reaction-Time Patterns in an Emotional Face–Word Stroop Task among Lower Secondary School Students: A Pilot Study

Abstract

This pilot study examined whether incongruent facial expressions and Vietnamese emotion labels were associated with longer reaction times than congruent pairings in lower secondary school students. Six Vietnamese students in Grades 6 to 8 completed a 130-trial Emotional Face–Word Stroop Task comprising 70 congruent and 60 incongruent trials. Reaction time was the primary measure, while accuracy was summarized separately. Mean reaction time was longer for incongruent trials than for congruent trials, with an average difference of 175.87 milliseconds and a 95 percent confidence interval from 104.28 to 247.46 milliseconds. Overall accuracy was 81.3 percent and was descriptively lower for incongruent trials than for congruent trials. An exploratory analysis across three broader stimulus groups produced a condition-by-group pattern, but this result was interpreted as task-specific because trial frequencies were unequal and the corresponding cells differed in emotional composition. All participants completed the task, with completion times ranging from 7.76 to 11.12 minutes. The findings showed an observed within-sample congruency pattern in this Vietnamese-language task, but they do not support population-level or stable emotion-specific conclusions. Future studies should use larger and more diverse samples, balanced stimulus categories, prespecified reaction-time preprocessing rules, controlled testing conditions, and sensitivity analyses restricted to correct responses. This pilot provides procedural and behavioral information for refining the task and designing future developmental, educational, and cross-cultural research.