Abstract: Under strictly controlled conditions, Stroop color naming task was used in the present research to explore whether the facilitation effect of distractor repetition was caused by habituation or by the continuous inhibitory mechanism of the distractor. This study further compared the differences between the stroop interference effect, the facilitation effect of distractor repetition, and the negative priming effect between students with and without learning difficulties. The results showed that the facilitation effect of distractor repetition was caused by habituation. Because habituation functioned merely in the condition that distractors were repeated, its effectiveness was not general. Whereas the distractor inhibitory mechanism referred by negative priming effect was a mechanism with general effectiveness. Furthermore, significant facilitation effect of distractor repetition was found both in students with and without learning difficulties, but due to poorer negative priming effect of the former, their Stroop interference effect was more significant than that of the students without learning difficulties.

Key words: habituation mechanism, distractor inhibitory mechanism, facilitation of distractor repetition, Stroop interference effect, negative priming effect