Why you can't ignore the word and name the colour: the Stroop effect
30seconds
Read the word, then name its ink colour: you can't turn reading off. In 1886 Cattell noticed that people read words faster than they name colours, and in 1935 John Ridley Stroop showed the cost: name the ink of a colour word printed in a clashing colour and you slow down.
The word reaches your brain first, and its wrong answer has to be suppressed before you can give the right one. Run three short rounds and measure your own clash in milliseconds.
Deep dive · 4 min
More in Mind
View all →
Every eye has a hole in its vision, and your brain paints over it
Every one of your eyes has a hole in its vision, about ten Moons wide, and you have never seen it. It is where the optic nerve leaves the retina, a patch with…
Why one more candle lights a dark room but vanishes in a bright one
Add one candle to a dark room and everything changes. Add one to a room with a hundred and nobody notices. Your senses don't measure differences in amounts…
Why you can't tickle yourself (and how a robot can fix that)
Every time you move, your brain keeps a copy of the command and uses it to predict what you're about to feel. Sensations that match the prediction get turned…