How to play Stroop test

A word for a colour appears on screen, painted in a different colour. Your job is to tap the colour the word is painted in, not the word itself. So if the word RED is shown in blue ink, you tap blue. The faster you tap right, the more points. Wrong taps lose points. The clock runs for thirty seconds.

Tips

• Look at the colour first, read the word second
• Lower your reading reflex, focus on the ink
• If your brain freezes, blink and try the next one
• Practice once a day, the conflict gets easier with reps

About Stroop test

John Ridley Stroop published the experiment in 1935 in his PhD thesis. Reading is so automatic in adult brains that the word fights with the colour, slowing your reaction time. The Stroop effect is still used in psychology and neurology today, including in tests for ADHD and dementia. The mini version we run here is not a clinical tool, just a quick brain twister that shows you how fast your reading kicks in even when you do not want it to.

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