Stroop · Colour Conflict
A colour word appears printed in a different colour of ink. Tap the button matching the INK colour, not the word. Each correct answer scores a point; a wrong one costs you. Bank as many as you can in 45 seconds.
How to play Stroop
A colour word appears printed in a different colour of ink. Tap the button matching the INK colour, not the word. Each correct answer scores a point; a wrong one costs you. Bank as many as you can in 45 seconds.
What it measures
This is the Stroop effect, first published in 1935 and still one of the most-used tasks in psychology. Reading is so automatic that the word interferes with naming the ink — measuring selective attention and inhibitory control.
Honest note: A faster Stroop score means you got faster at Stroop. It's a great window into attention under pressure — not an IQ test or a treatment for anything.
What's a good score?
Most players land in the 20–35 range across 45 seconds; past 40 with high accuracy is excellent. The percentile we show is an estimate based on typical distributions, not a clinical norm.
FAQ
Do wrong answers hurt?
Yes — a wrong tap costs a point, so accuracy matters as much as speed.
Why is it so hard?
Reading is automatic; overriding it takes effort, and that effort is exactly what we're measuring.
Keep training
Stroop pits an automatic habit (reading) against your goal (name the ink colour) — a clean window into inhibitory control, the brain’s brake pedal. It’s one of the most-used tasks in attention research and in cognitive rehabilitation.
Who benefits most — no medical claims, just where the research points
Resisting the obvious-but-wrong response is the essence of focus under distraction.
Attention and executive-function training improved these domains in most studies reviewed — used clinically; here it’s practice.
A quick read on how well your ‘brake pedal’ is working right now.