THE STROOP COLOR-WORD TEST - A REVIEW

Sep 25, 2026

Review of the Stroop Color-Word Test, focusing on why the task remains psychologically significant after three decades. It highlights reliable, stable individual-difference measures across three basic aspects of human performance, consistent rank ordering among the three Stroop scores, and correlations with many other, sometimes more complex, psychological measurements. The review traces historical origins from early experimental psychology to the interference paradigm and summarizes how the test has been administered and scored.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages58

Reading Time2 h 26 min

AccessFree to download

Forms of the Test

Variations

THE STRCOP COLOR-WORD TEST:A REVIEW 1 ARTHUR R.JENSEN and WILLIAM D.ROHWER JR.University of California,Berkeley,USA The Stroop Color-Word Test,which has now been in existence for30 years,s of considerable psychological interest for several reasons:(a)it yields highly reliable and stable measures of individual differenceeon what seem to be three quite simple and basic Espects of huranperformance;(b)though there are reliable individual differences oneach of the three ime scores obtained from the Stroop test,the threescores maintain the same rank order of magnitude for all subjects(there was not a single exception among over 400 Ss tested by thewriters);(c)the test has been used in a large variety of studies andhas shown significant correlations with a host of other,often morecomplex,psychological measurements.Indeed,one difficulty in re-viewing the literature on the Stroop test is that it cuts across so manydiverse types of research and schools of thought in psychology.Thevariety of interpretations of the Stroop phenomena,couched in manydifferent terminologies and unrelated theoretical orientations,testifiesto the fact that psychology still has a long way to go in becominga unified science. The origins of the Stroop test go back almost to the beginning ofexperimental psychology.In the first psychological laboratory,in Leip-zig,Wilhelm Wundt,in 1883,suggested to one of his students,JamesMcKecn Cattell,that he do his doctoral research on the time it takesto name objects and colors and to read the corresponding words.Cattellreported the first experimental study of the relative speeds of color-naming and color-word reading in Mind in 1886.The fact that color-naming requires more ime than word-naming was also noted in WilliamJames'Principles of Psychology(1908,vol.I,p.559),and was later the subject of researches by DESCOEUDRES(1914),W.BROWN(1915),and then,within a few years,by several other investigators waework is cited n later sections of this review. The most interesting feature of the Stroop test—the conflict orinterference situation in which the subject must name the color of theink of color-words when the color and the word are incongruous---actually originiated in the laboratory of Erich Rudolf Jaensch inMarburg,Germany,in connection with Jaensch's research on perceptualtypes(JAENSCH,1929).The color-word interference test,however,wasfirst introduced into American psychology by John Ridley Stroop(March 21,1897b.)Stroop was working as a graduate student in theJessup Psychological Laboratory of the George Peabody College forTeachers,where,under the directorship of Professor Joseph Peterson(1878-1935)there had already been established an interest in individ-ual differences in speed cf color naming and word reading.Peterson'stheories on this topic(see PETERSON and DAVID,1918)and his interestin racial psychology had stimulated an earlier student,TELFORD(1930),to use color naming and word reading in the study oi racialdifferences,and also stimulated Stroop's choice of a topic for hisdoctoral thesis,concerned with interference in serial verbal re-actions,in which he used the color-word interference test nowgenerally referred to by his name.The study was published in theJournal of Experimental Psychology (STROOP,1935),and was followedby only one other study using the color-word test(STROOP,1938).From 1936 to 1964 Dr.Stroop was Head of the Department of Psy-chology at David Lipscomb College in Nashville,Tennessee,and since1964 has been Professor of Bible.2 # FORMS OF THE TEST There is no standard version of the Stroop test with respect eitherto the materials of the test,the administration,or the scoring.However,the number of versions seems to be fewer than the number of investi-gators who have used the est,and each investigator secms to stickto only one version throughout various studies. The original Stroop STROOp's(1935b)test consisted of three cards:a word card(W),acolor card(C),and the incongruous color-word card(CW

FAQs

What makes the Stroop Color-Word Test psychologically significant?

It provides reliable and stable measures of individual differences across three basic aspects of performance and shows consistent rank ordering of the three scores across subjects. It is also widely used and correlates with many other psychological measurements.

Where did the Stroop conflict/interference idea originate?

The conflict situation in which subjects name the ink color of incongruous color-words is traced to Erich Rudolf Jaensch’s laboratory work on perceptual types in Marburg, Germany.

Is there a single standard version of the Stroop test?

No. The review states there is no standard version regarding materials, administration, or scoring, and different investigators tend to stick to one version in their studies.

Sep 25, 2026

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