Exercises / Colour
Stroop test online, free
Name the ink colour of a word, not the word itself. Trains the ability to keep the relevant feature in front and push a stronger habit aside.
Try it
Choose the ink colour the word is printed in. Ignore what the word says.
45 seconds. No account, nothing saved, nothing to install.
What does the Stroop test measure?
A Stroop task. Reading is close to automatic, so a mismatched colour word competes with naming the ink. The gap between mismatched and matched trials is the interference cost.
Headline measure: Interference cost (ms)
Your score describes how you did on this task, on this day, at this difficulty. It is not an IQ score, a percentile or a medical measure. Read more on what the exercises measure.
How does the Stroop test work?
Choose the ink colour the word is printed in. Ignore what the word says.
- A colour word appears, printed in a colour of its own.
- Choose the ink colour, never the word meaning.
- The buttons stay in the same positions for the whole set.
Controls
- 1 / 2 / 3 / 4Choose the matching answer button
- TapTap a colour button
How is the Stroop test scored?
Each set reports accuracy and interference cost. Scores compare you with your own earlier sets, never with other people.
Where does the Stroop test come from?
Stroop showed that naming the ink colour of a colour word takes longer when the word says something else. Reading is close to automatic, so the word gets in the way of the answer you actually want. The gap between mismatched and matched trials is the interference cost, and ninety years later it is still one of the most used measures of selective attention.
