Experiment

Say the Ink, Not the Word

In 1935, the psychologist John Ridley Stroop had people name the color of ink a word was printed in, while the word itself spelled out a color name, sometimes the same one, sometimes a different one. People were reliably slower and less accurate whenever the two disagreed. Reading a word you already know how to read turns out to be close to involuntary, faster and more automatic than deliberately naming a color, and the two compete for the same answer even when only one of them is actually being asked for.