Random but... I just posted this in adult learners and it seemed something appropriately random for the cafe, and also having spent such a long time getting it right, I hate to leave it only in one post Making the absolute most of my hard work after posting it in CISD too.

Thanks to Andante_in_C who told me what it is called!

This is an experiment that used to be at the Science Museum in Bristol (may well still be I guess!)

Words for colours (ie blue, green, red) were written in the colours they represented, and then in completely different colours, and you had to try saying the colours the words were printed in. Surprisingly hard! If your brain is tuned into blue meaning blue, then you actually (assuming your English is good) comprehend the meaning of the word more quickly than the colour it is printed in, and so if you see red printed in blue it takes a lot of concentration to quickly say blue and not red. If that makes sense (and I do hope I got it the right way round!)

As an example: As fast as you can, read out loud the colours that these words are printed in (not the colour that they are)

If you're anything like me (and as far as I remember mine is the "normal" reaction...) then when the words start being in different colours to the meaning of the words, you suddenly start speaking at about half the speed and still make masses of mistakes!

If you squint and blur the words then it's easier to say the colours.

Might be quite different for someone whose native tongue is not English or who doesn't read fluently in English.

blue red green yellow blue red pink purple orange red pink blue red orange purple blue purple purple red green red green pink yellow red purple blue red blue yellow red green purpleyellow red green orange red pink blue red purple blue red purple blue red orange blue red pink green red pink blue blue red green yellow blue red pink purple orange

Interestingly, I'm finding it much easier than I usually do. It might be because you have run all the words together rather than listing them one below the other, or it might be because they're on a vertical rather than a horizontal surface.

No, wait! I've got it! It's harder if you do it in upper case. In lower case, the physical shapes of the words help.

OK, this has inspired me to devise the following:



Try and sing the tune, singing the written letter with each note .

I can't even sing the tune ignoring the letter names But interesting idea YAP.

I agree with trebor, good idea

OK, so I guess absolute pitch might help .

The only way I could do it was to sing relatively - any big leaps, or distractions, and I was stuffed .

I managed it, at the second attempt, but only by going v e r y s l o w l y

That would be an amazing sight-reading trainer

I'm so terrible I can barely sing it in solfa never mind random letters!

As for the colour thing, I can reaf them in perfect time if reading the letter, but when reading colours I go to pieces!

OK, perhaps a sol-fa version might be more accessible:

I think it's something to do with psychology. I found that if I told myself to read the words on the colour test instead of being distracted by the colours it was easy. Also, with the notes test, I told myself that the "do, re mi" "c, d, f" etc. were lyrics, and consequently it's easy.
I think it depends what approach you take,
Sarah x

The psychological explanation for the affect is to do with our automatic processing abilities. Because we have a limited attentional capacity, we can only perform complex tasks by making some of them automatic. Learning to drive is a good illustration of this: we go from struggling to change gear and steer simultaneously to being able to drive whilst listening to the radio. This is because the routine parts of driving become automatic through practice.

The same applies to note-reading. Learner flautists really struggle to translate the dots on the lines to where to put their fingers, as well as concentrating on their breathing, embouchure and any tricky rhythm patterns. The note-to-fingers process has to become automatic in order to play quick notes, as there is no way we can read them and translate in time.

YAP's version of the Stroop test interrupts this automatic processing by allowing another process to interfere with it. The only way of dealing with it is to use our capabilities for paying selective attention to filter out the unwanted extra stimulus.

And now I've bored you all to tears I'll keep quiet and get me coat.

Sorry to be so thick but should I be saying the word or the colour it's printed in?

I thought that since you were trying to say the colours and not the words, it would be easier in upper case? As the words would be less recognisable...? Whereas if you were trying to say the words, it would be easier in lower case because the shapes of the words would help, and it would be easier to ignore the colours.

Unless I am completely confused, which is entirely possible.

YAP, that is completely evil and I can't do it at all. If I completely ignored the stave maybe I could...

edit: I've just realised I was doing the wrong thing, trying to sing the tune that the note names showed whilst looking at the tune that was written. Most confusing. Going to try again! Singing the tune that's written if I ignore the notenames is fine.

Willobie: The colour that it is printed in.

The music one: I'm confused, am I supposed to be singing the notes that are written on the staff but the words being the solfa or letters that are underneath?? Because if I have understood it properly, then I can do that fine, no problem. Not necessarily in the right key, but in the key that comes naturally to me, I can do that. If on the other hand I'm supposed to be trying to sing the tune indicated by the letter names or solfa, then I'm stuck!

There's a nice online version of the Stroop test here...

Interestingly, hypnotic suggestion is reported to convey some immunity from Stroop effects (gravity of linguistic over visual modality) along with other effects such as ideomotor or ideosensory responses. I only mention this because I'm undertaking a course in Clinical Hypnosis at University College London currently, and this is the only place I've ever seen the Stroop effect mentioned!

Good to note that there is some crossover between my various studies

Found the sol-fa one a lot easier than the letter names. Possibly because I'm used to singing syllables I don't understand to notes, so I didn't think of them as sol-fa, just as syllables and it was easy.

Still having to go slowly on the notes and letters one, and on the words and colours.

Just wondering of left brain vs right brain thinking is a factor and it helps if you close one eye

Reminds me of a fascinating experiment I heard about a few weeks ago....

A man had some sort of brain damage that interrupted communications between the two sides of his brain. He was shown two pictures, one to each eye, and asked to choose a matching picture associated with each of those.

His right eye was shown a picture of a chicken, and asked to choose a related item from a chicken shed, and a few unrelated items; he chose the chicken shed, as one would expect.

His left eye was shown a picture of a snowy driveway with a car on it, and he was asked to choose a related from a shoven and a few other things; he chose the shovel, as one would expect.

However, with his two eyes firmly fixed on the original pictures, he was asked to explain why he had chosen the chicken shed and the shovel. His response?

'Oh, that's easy. You need a chicken shed to keep the chicken in, and a shovel to clean it up afterwards'.

The part of the brain that sought to rationalise his actions could only 'see' what his right eye was shown, so it rationalised his decisions with reference to that. Interestingly, this sort of thing happens a lot - people seek to rationalise and explain their actions, thoroughly beliving their explanations to themselves no matter how wrong they may actually be....

I am a twit. I always seem to remember it the wrong way round. Sorry!

katyjay, I guess without perfect pitch it's possible to treat the Ds, Bs, etc as meaningless syllables too. It's probably a good deal harder with perfect pitch actually.

YAP: I'm used to singing using relative pitch, and I have no problem singing the letter C to the note D - without perfect pitch, as far as my brain is concerned I'm just singing the notes in relation to each other, and I'm looking at the shape they make on the staff and how they relate to each other rather than trying to sing the actual notes, if you see what I mean. I guess for someone with perfect pitch it's the nearest you'll come to singing with only relative pitch??!

Andante: it probably says something about my confidence in what I am talking about that I assumed it probably was me being confused not you

Pars: thanks for that online one, that was cool

Fascinating - I found the sight-reading much easier than the words / colours.

I did the online one and my incongruent time was quicker than my congruent time. I always get different results to everyone else on pyschological tests.

Me too.

Boo: that's very unusual

Did you find it easy to read out the printed colours in the one I made up?