Colour Match

The word and the ink usually disagree. Sometimes you answer about the ink, sometimes about the word. Read the instruction each time — that is the hard part.

RED

60 seconds · wrong answers cost 1.5s

How Colour Match works

A colour word appears, printed in a colour that usually is not the one it names. Above it is the instruction: sometimes “tap the colour of the word”, sometimes “tap what the word says”. It swaps between the two at random, so you cannot get into a rhythm and stop reading.

This is the Stroop effect: your brain reads the word faster than it registers the ink, so the two answers compete and you have to actively override one. A wrong answer costs 1.5 seconds off the clock rather than ending the run, so one slip is survivable.

Questions

What is the Stroop effect?

When the word "RED" is printed in blue ink, your brain reads the word faster than it sees the colour, and the two answers fight. That interference is the Stroop effect, and this game is built on it.

How do you play?

Read the instruction at the top — sometimes it asks for the colour of the ink, sometimes for what the word says. It swaps between the two, so you cannot settle into a rhythm. Sixty seconds, as many as you can.

What happens if I get one wrong?

You lose a second and a half off the clock rather than the run. It costs you, but a single slip does not end a sixty second game.

I am colour blind — can I play?

Partly. The game is colour-dependent by nature, but every answer button is labelled with the colour name as well as the swatch, so the choices are always readable as text.

More to play: Reaction Time Test, Chimp Test, or all solo games.