Can Using the Stroop Effect Make You Smarter?

If you’ve ever taken a psychology class, you’ve no doubt heard of the Stroop effect. It’s one of the most cited studies ever.

The effect is named for John Ridley Stroop, who published a paper in 1935. The idea goes back even further to a pair of German researchers in 1929.

The Stroop effect is all about something called interference. In the study, people were asked to say the ‘colour’ of the the words being presented. That sounds simple enough, but it becomes much more difficult when the words you’re looking are the say different colours than the fonts they’re written in.

Here’s an example. Look at the image below. Say the colour of the word, not the word that’s written.

The top row should have been easy for you, because the written colour names match up with the font colours. The bottom row is tougher, because of the interference from your knowledge of English.

When you look at the words on the bottom, you see both the meaning and the colour of the words. Since you’ve learned in school that the words themselves are more important the than colour they’re written in, you’re more apt to focus on the written word. At least that’s what a lot of the research suggests is happening.

Is this effective brain exercise

I’ve read a lot of research on the Stroop Effect, but I haven’t found much credible evidence to suggest it will enhance your intelligence.

From my own personal experimentation, playing with the Stroop effect definitely gives the brain a workout, so give it a shot and see how it works for you.

Stroop effect tools

There aren’t many good tools out there for the stroop effect. I’ve listed a few below for you to check out. Feel free to let me know if I’m missing a good one.

Ontario Science Centre – has a Stroop effect tool that changes the colours, but the words stay the same, so it’s not completely random. EDIT: This link no longer works so it’s been removed.

Washington University has a nice looking Stroop effect tool, but there are only a few charts before they repeat.

The first Brain Age for the Game Boy (affiliate link) has the Stroop effect as well as other games, built in.

There’s also an iPhone app called Stroop Effect, that gets you to tap the colour of word.

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