Play in your browser · Flexibility
Stroop test
Name the ink colour, not the word. A one-minute version of the classic colour-word test, with your Stroop effect in milliseconds at the end.
This test runs in your browser with JavaScript. Turn it on to play, or get Omni Brain for the full version.
How to play
- Press Start. A colour word appears — RED, BLUE, GREEN or PURPLE — printed in one of the four ink colours.
- Answer with the ink colour, not the word: tap its button or press 1–4.
- After 24 trials you see your Stroop effect: how much slower you are when the word and the ink disagree.
What your score means
Your Stroop effect is the difference between your median time on clashing trials (the word RED in blue ink) and on matching ones (RED in red). Lower means the word gets in your way less.
As a rough guide for this short browser version: under about 60 ms is small, 60–140 ms is common, and above that the word pulls hard. Your device, screen and tiredness all move the number, so compare yourself with yourself.
About the Stroop test
The Stroop test is one of the oldest tasks in psychology. John Ridley Stroop described it in 1935: naming the ink colour of a colour word is slower when the word names a different colour, because reading is fast and automatic and has to be held back. Researchers use it to study inhibition and attention control, the executive functions that let you set aside the obvious answer and do what the task asks. Practice and a clear rule — say the ink, not the word — make the effect smaller within the trained task. In Omni Brain the same idea runs as Color-Word, with difficulty that adapts after every block and a review of every mistake.
Techniques from the app
- Say the rule, not the word. Keep repeating the current rule in your head: “ink, ink, ink”. The word will try to answer for you.
- Slow down after a switch. When a box appears or goes, take one extra beat on that word. Speed comes back on its own.
Train attention control every day in Omni Brain
Color-Word and many more short games, each with a technique you can use outside the app. Free every day.
Questions about the Stroop test
What does the Stroop test measure?
It measures interference: how much an automatic habit, here reading, slows down a deliberate answer, here naming the ink colour. Psychologists use it to study inhibition and attention control.
Is a lower Stroop effect better?
Yes: a smaller gap between clashing and matching trials means the word interferes less. Accuracy counts too, so fast answers with many mistakes are not a better result.
Can you train the Stroop effect?
Practice reliably makes you faster at the task itself, and a clear rule (say the ink, not the word) helps. How far that carries over to everyday focus is still being studied, which is why the game carries a B evidence label.
Why four colours?
Four colours keep each choice quick enough for a one-minute test while still making you look at the ink instead of guessing.