About two days ago, I saw a little clip from Stephen Fry's Planet Word where they conducted a Stroop test but it didn't seem to answer some questions I had. So I decided to create a Stroop Test that would address my questions.

Would you guys mind trying it out for me and telling me whether which version of the test is more difficult: the first part or the second part?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4w7z8bi6J0[/youtube]

EDIT: Reuploaded a better version of my video.

This is my experience of the test.

Maybe it's just me and am I color blind or something, but I struggled from beginning to end. I wasn't able to determine the colors quickly enough. Too much blackness compared to the colors I guess. Not sure if the swearing words added anything to the challange. I'm not a native english speaker, though hearing me slip and say "cock" and "dildo" made me suppress an urge to laugh.

First thing: I don't know if it's just my computer but the initial example "Orange" comes up as white. The next screen then says "the answer should have been yellow, not blue" - which seems absolutely bizarre and incomprehensible.

Ignoring that and presuming I understand what the test is trying to do however, I think the problem is you wouldn't actually get meaningful results from self-reporting of subjective experience on something like this. You'd need to get people pushing buttons or something that you could measure their response time objectively.

For myself, I do think that the swear words were a little distracting, and made it a bit harder. But I couldn't be sure. I was able to do all of the words (I think) so it may be that while I felt that sense of distraction, it didn't actually affect my response time. It may be that I felt the same distraction from the meaning of the words in both sections of the test, I don't know.

I found the swearing one a tiny bit harder but that might only be because I'm used to the normal one. The first couple of words caught me off guard but I managed to pull it back after, except for that one colour I didn't know what to call. I've never found the test difficult in the first place either way.

Yipes! I'd better go and fix it.

As for pressing buttons, I wish I could be that high tech, I really do.

EDIT: There. All fixed now. I've altered one of the colours that didn't come out quite right, so it should be easier to identify it.

I found the swearing one easier.