Our eyes play tricks on us. (And no, I’m not talking about when I squint real hard at the views per hour bars at my place and they look almost like the ones here.) I invite you to observe this chart and say the colors of each word out loud (not the words), as fast as you can.
You have just experienced the Stroop effect!
The Stroop effect, a fixture in nearly every psychology textbook, has proved deceptively straightforward. When asked to name aloud the incompatible ink colors . . . people experience a mental sensation comparable to running in a swimming pool – you just can’t do it quickly.
Thus writes Bruce Bower. But the most surprising thing about the Stroop Test may be its creator.
J. Ridley Stroop achieved instant scientific prominence when his doctoral dissertation appeared in the December 1935 JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. Yet Stroop . . . abandoned the psychology laboratory for a life devoted to teaching, preaching and writing about the Bible. Stroop’s students and colleagues . . . referred to him as both “Doctor Stroop” and “Brother Stroop.”
Bower has some quirky anecdotes. One prominent psychologist, Arthur R. Jensen, spent months trying to track down Stroop.
Jensen traveled out to the small campus where Stroop’s office door declared: “J.R. Stroop, Professor of Bible.”
“He didn’t know anyone who even knew about his test,” Jensen recalls. “He seemed slightly embarrassed that he was no longer really interested in psychology.”
Another psychologist had tried to contact Stroop by mail but he never wrote back.
The letter, Jensen explains somewhat incredulously, came from psychologist Louis L. Thurstone, the preeminent investigator of mental tests in the 1940s and early 1950s.
Canadian psychologist Colin MacLeod takes up the story from J.R. Stroop’s early years, and leaves me with the haunting impression that a different breed of human once roamed the earth. Stroop married his wife Zelma Dunn Stroop and had three sons while still an undergraduate.
To support his growing family, Stroop continued to teach . . . during his university years. He also worked as a janitor and as a librarian and taught high school, in addition to building his own house during that time. . . .
He was an individualist who treated everyone as his equal. As a teacher, he was tough but fair, considered one of the very best at the college. He was especially noted for his dry sense of humour and fondness for puns. . . .
The greatest force in Stroop’s life was his religion. . . . [He] was a devout Christian for his entire life. From his college days on, he preached every Sunday, often taking a train out into the country and being paid with a chicken or a bag of potatoes, if at all . . . .
J.R. Stroop eventually wrote seven books on the bible, still widely used in bible schools and bible classes. And the Stroop Test is still considered the “gold standard of attentional measures.” His paper continues to be massively cited, and more than 700 other studies have replicated it.
Brother Stroop was quite the character.
The Blog of Funny Names 
I kind of hate and love you at the same time for that first image. It’s fun but messes with your brain!
And yes, he was quite the character. Someday I hope to be as accomplished as he is!
I got a feeling you will be!
I wish I could have the confident vision for my future that most people seem to have about me. Then again, Lena Dunham once said “Self-love and self-loathing are constant, bickering bedfellows. If used well, both can keep you moving forward” so perhaps it’s better that I don’t let my head get too big 🙂
Well, self-loathing seems a bit harsh. Maybe you can just think of it as your inner editor, subjecting yourself to that rigorous critique that everyone else refuses to give you. (Lazy bums!) You’re just picking up the slack.
Fair point. I like it 🙂
Man, I had to go back in and edit that thing. Two paragraphs slipped out of the last blockquote somehow.
Bad paragraphs! Bad paragraphs!
I gave um a good whack with a rolled up newspaper.
This cracked me up. I talk back when my HTML doesn’t behave, too. Great post today!
Thanks, amb!
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He stroops to conquer?
I think so?
Good one!
no music? no you tube clips? Is this really you, diddy? I hope you’re not tied up in a closet someplace while another equally talented writer has taken over your posting.
Though I supposed it’s possible you have a good handle on the Stroops of this world and this is really you. He seems a fine fellow–très excentrique, which puts him right at home here. Thanks for continuing to further my education.
I know… that was a surprise to me too, but what is the BoFN for if not stretching our minds and pushing us into uncharted territory with our writing styles?
+1 to Liz (I’m not sure what we use those points for, though) for using the term très excentrique.
I’m winning (that’s what +1 means, right?) AND I came in at 5000th comment. What a day 🙂
Congrats on the big 5 triple 0, Liz!
I read that first linked Stroop article back in the 90s and it kept popping back into my head. I thought I should do it for BoFN before Dave got to it through his brain studies!!!
smart move, diddy. The two of you (you and Dave, not you and Stroop) will do well running the world when that day finally arrives.
Well done. My brain is still derailed. I cannot image having that kind of energy to work multiple jobs, have a family and get a Ph.D. Impressive.
I know, and that color words thing is SO hard! I can do it, but my brain always flutters, even the third time through.
Thanks, Fanny!
I mean Fann(ie). Sorry about that.
Not to worry. I love what you did with the parentheses! Always a bit of humor there. 😉
Man, we all just got Strooped! Love that test, it screws with you so well. Nice job!
Thanks, Arto! Isn’t it freaky? This kids site (if you scroll to the very end) has links to variations of the Stroop test with directions, numbers, and animals.
The reply self-posted itself before I could put in the link:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/words.html
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