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Stroop Task

Executive Function

Classic color-word interference task measuring inhibitory control and selective attention.

The Stroop task is one of psychology's most replicable paradigms, first described by John Ridley Stroop in 1935. Participants are presented with color words (e.g., RED, GREEN) written in colored ink, and must name the ink color as quickly and accurately as possible while ignoring the word's meaning.

The task demonstrates cognitive interference: reaction times and error rates are higher when the ink color is incongruent with the word meaning (e.g., RED written in green ink) compared to congruent trials (e.g., RED written in red ink). This Stroop interference effect is a robust measure of executive function — particularly selective attention and response inhibition.

This implementation uses four colors (red, green, blue, orange), includes a brief congruent-only practice block followed by a practice-complete screen, and runs 24 shuffled main trials. Timing parameters are exposed as re-usable parameters so researchers can adjust them in the Open Lab study builder without editing individual screens.

attentioninhibitionexecutive functioncolor naminginterferencecognitive control
Duration~10 min
InputKeyboard required
Complexity

Configuration complexity

Simple — few parameters, works out of the box with no changes required.
Moderate — multiple options across several groups; some parameters must be updated together. No code required.
Flexible — involves custom scripts or task logic; requires programming knowledge or deep familiarity with the paradigm structure.
Moderate
Versionv1.0
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