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Journal of Personality Assessment

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A Group Version of the Stroop Color and

Word Test
Charles J. Golden
Published online: 10 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Charles J. Golden (1975) A Group Version of the Stroop Color and Word Test, Journal
of Personality Assessment, 39:4, 386-388, DOI: 10.1207/s15327752jpa3904_10

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa3904_10

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 Journal of Personality Assessment, 1975,39,4

A Group Version of the Stroop Color and Word Test

CHARLES J. GOLDEN
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Summary: The uses of the Stroop Color and Word Test have been limited because of the
lack .of a standardized form, particularly one which could be used for both individual and
group administrations as demanded by the requirements of a research project. The present
version of the test counted the number of items completed by the subject in a 45-second
time period. In the individual version the subject said the words out loud while in the group
version he said the words to himself. Results indicated that the two versions were equivalent
to each other as well as to forms requiring the subject to read a whole page of items. It was
felt that a group form would greatly enhance the research capabilities of the Stroop Test.

The Stroop Color and Word Test was
first introduced in this country by Stroop
(1935). Since then it has been used to
investigate personality, psychiatric dis-
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non has served as the area of interest to
most researchers.
The present study was an attempt to
develop a form of the Stroop which could

orders, cognition, stress response, and
other psychological phenomenon (see the
review by Jensen & Rohwer, 1966).
Conclusions about the nature of the
Stroop have been hampered, however, by
a proliferation of forms of the test
differing in number of colors, items,
difficulty, and timing. In addition, no
form of the test has been developed
which can be used in both a group and
individual setting. This has often limited
sample size in these experiments making
generalizations unreliable.
Almost all forms of the Stroop Test
have consisted of three basic pages: a
word (W) page which consists of color
words written in black ink; a color (C)
page with semantically meaningless
symbols printed in colored ink; and a
color-word (CW) page on which the
words on the first page are printed in the
colors on the second page with the
restriction that the word and the color do
not match. On the first page the subject is
instructed to read the words aloud. On
the C and CW pages the subject is
instructed to name the color of ink. A
subject's score is usually the time it takes
to finish a page. On the CW page the
words interfere with the subject's reading
of the colors. This interference phenome-
A copy of the form of the Stroop test
discussed in this study will be sent with a
reprint of the article if requested from the
author.
be used in both group and individual
settings as well as serve as a basic form for
researchers interested in the Stroop. The
group and individual measures differed
only in that the group test does not
require a spoken response. The two forms
differed in general from other tests in
that the measure of subject performance
was items per 45 seconds, rather than
time per 100 items.
Method
Subjects
Subjects were 240 college under-
graduates and 300 high school students.
Average age of the sample was 18. There
were slightly more males than females in
the total sample.
Materials
The Stroop Test consisted of three
pages stapled together. Each page had
100 items in 5 columns of 20 items.
Items on the first page were the color
words RED, GREEN, and BLUE in black
ink. On the second page the items were
XXXX's colored in red, green, or blue
ink. Items on the third page were the
words RED, GREEN, and BLUE printed
in red, green, or blue ink with the
limitation that word and ink could not
match. On all pages the items were
randomly distributed except that no item
within a column could follow itself.
 CHARLES J. GOLDEN
Table 1
Means, Standard Deviations and
Reliabilities for the Stroop
Card Form M SD
Word Group 102.O
Word Ind 99.6
Color Group 78.5
Color Ind 77.2
CW Group 44.2
CW Ind 46.3
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Bocedure
Thirty subjects took the individual
form of the test twice, 60 took both
forms (one-half took the individual form
first), and 450 subjects, including all the
high school students, took the group
form twice. The basic instructions for the
group form of the W page were:
This is a test of how fast you can read
the words on this page. After I say
begin, you are to read down the
columns starting with the first one
saying the words to yourself as quickly
as you can. After you finish the first
column, go on to the next and so on
until I say stop. If you reach the last
item before I stop you, return to the
first column and begin again. If you
make a mistake, correct it and then go
on. Any questions? Then begin.
After 45 seconds the experimenter says,
"Stop. Circle the item you're on. If you
finished the entire first page and began
again, put a one by your circle. Turn the
page."
Instructions on the second page were
identical except that the subject was
asked to name the color of the ink. On
the third page, he was instructed to name
the color of the ink ignoring the word it
spelled. For the individual form, the
subject was instructed to say the words
"out loud" rather than "to yourself."
387
r
19.3 .89
18.9 .8 6
15.4 34
15.7 .82
10.1 .73
9.8 .73
Results
All pages were scored as to the number
of items completed in 45 seconds. Table
1 presents the means and standard devi-
ations for the first presentations of each
page on each form. In addition the
reliabilities across presentations for those
subjects taking the same form twice are
presented in Table 1. Reliabilities for the
group form were .89, 3 4 , and .73 (n =
450) for the W, C!, and CW pages,
respectively. For the subjects taking both
forms, cross-form reliabilities were .85,
.81, and .69 (n = 60), quite comparable
to the reliabilities of the two forms alone.
There were no significant differences be-
tween the individu%l and group forms on
any of the three pages.
Discussion
The results of the present study indi-
cate that the two forms of the test are
equivalent and can be used interchange-
ably. The results here are also basically
equivalent to that of other studies when
their time per 100 item measure is con-
verted into the items per 45 seconds
measure used here. For example, Jensen's
(1965) results, when converted, are 118,
78, and 45 for the three pages, all
comparable except the word score -
which may be due to Jensen's primarily
 388 Group
female sample of college age versus the
largely high school sample here. In
addition, the reliabilities in the present
study are almost identical to those of
Jensen who reported reliabilities of 38,
.79, and .7 1.
The availability of a group form of the
Stroop Test should enable the researcher
to explore the cognitive and personality
components of the Stroop scores, which
have been suggested but never fully in-
vestigated in past studies. It is felt that
further investigation of the Stroop will
reveal it to be a valuable tool to the
psychologist both as a measure of individ-
ual differences and as a method of study-
ing personality and cognitive structure.
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Version of the Stroop Color and Word Test
References
Jensen, A. R. Scoring the Stroop Test. Acta
Psychologia, 1965,24, 398-408.
Jensen, A. R., & Rohwer, W, D. The Stroop
Color and Word Test: A review. Acta
Psychologia, 1966,25, 36-93.
Stroop, J. R. Studies of interference in serial
verbal reactions. Journal o f Experimental
P ~ y c h o l o g 1935,18,
~, 643-662.
Charles J. Golden
University of South Dakota
Department of Psychology
Vermillion, So. Dakota 57069
Received: May 3,1974
Revised: June 26,1974