Tests aren't usually much fun, having to remember arcane facts or come up with reasons or analysis for some historical or literary event, or something of that ilk. But the Stroop Test is not that sort of thing. It doesn't require you do remember or construct anything, but just look at words on a screen and say out loud the color they are displayed in. For example, RED. The word and its color are the same, so that's pretty easy. But what about GREEN. The word and its color are different, so if you just blurt out the word, you get it wrong. Need to pause a bit to get your bearings before determining the color to say.
Whatever other purposes it might have, I take the Stroop Test as an example of our ability to inhibit our first idea of some action and then be able to choose some other response. In this case, the ability is kind of frittered on a meaningless activity.
But maybe that ability isn't so trivial after all if you read the abstract of an interesting experiment involving the Stroop and driving performance. In that experiment, those who had done poorly on the Stroop also performed poorly in a driving test. Those who had gotten a gold star on the Stroop seemed to be more aware and aroused as they spotted and tried to avoid an obstacle in the road.
What's most interesting to me here is the idea that a way of perceiving on an arcane psychological test can generalize to something quite useful in the real world. (And, presumably keep your auto insurance rates low.)
These ideas of awareness and choice aren't new, of course. Lots of traditions pass them down through generations. They are the cornerstones of the Feldenkrais Method and Alexander Technique. There, often discovering a pattern of interference with movement and developing options for using the body more effectively can have profound effects.
What would happen if you tried this Stroop Test on one of your pets. Probably nothing, since domestic pets don't have language. But if they did, what sort of language would it be? More on that later.
Tags : feldenkrais perception