Attention test
Name the colour of the ink, not the word. It sounds easy until the word says something else.
- words
- 24
- minutes
- ~2
- no sign-up
- Free
The Stroop effect
In 1935 the psychologist John Ridley Stroop showed that people slow down when a colour word is printed in a different ink. The effect is still one of the best-known measures of attention.
Why it happens
Reading is so automatic that the word competes with the colour you are trying to name.
What the score means
Your interference cost is the extra time the mismatched words take. A smaller cost means better control of attention.
Accuracy counts
Being fast but wrong does not help. Only correct answers are timed.
More tests
Questions
What is a normal Stroop effect?
Online, most people take between 50 and 150 milliseconds longer on mismatched words.
Is this test the same in every language?
The effect appears in every language you read fluently, which is why this test changes its words with the language of the page.