The Stroop Test in Psychology

 

The Stroop Test in Psychology

The Stroop Test is one of psychology’s simplest and most powerful demonstrations of how our brains process information. At first glance it looks like a word game—but it reveals a great deal about attention, automatic processing, and cognitive control.

What Is the Stroop Test?

In its classic form, participants see a list of colour words printed in mismatched ink colours. For example, the word red might be printed in blue ink. The task is to say the ink colour, not the word.

Why Is It Difficult?

Reading words is an automatic process for most literate adults. Identifying ink colours requires controlled attention. The conflict between the automatic response (reading) and the required response (naming the ink colour) slows reaction times and increases errors. This is known as the Stroop effect.

What It Shows Us

• Cognitive interference: competing information disrupts performance.

• Attention and control: we need mental effort to override automatic responses.

• Applications: the Stroop Test is used in clinical psychology to measure processing speed, attention deficits, and even the effects of stress or fatigue.

Classroom Application

Students can run a Stroop Test easily with printed cards or digital slides. By measuring response times and error rates, they can collect data and graph the difference between congruent (word and colour match) and incongruent (word and colour conflict) conditions.

The Takeaway

The Stroop Test proves that even simple tasks reveal complex cognitive processes. It’s a quick, memorable way to demonstrate how psychology turns everyday behaviour into measurable science.