A psychologist has shared a quick and simple test which is said to be able to gauge the speed of your brain’s processing.
Dr Julie Smith, a clinical psychologist and author, has joined the ranks of professionals using social media to offer expert advice and insight en masse.
With her TikTok following now topping 4.8 million thanks to her insightful content, one of her most viral videos – clocking in at 6.9 million views – sees Dr Smith showcasing a straightforward brain speed test. Facing the camera, she asks: “Quick psychology test – how fast is your brain? Try this. Name the colour of each font.”
Words representing colours then flash around her, all with the text colour matching the word itself, such as ‘blue’ written in blue font, or ‘green’ written in green font.
Seemingly simple, Dr Smith then asked viewers if they were able to up the ante, displaying words where the font colour contrasts the actual word – for example, ‘orange’ written in blue in font, or the word ‘red’ penned in a green font, and so on.
The challenge here is for participants to state the colour of the text rather than reading the word itself, so they would need to say “blue” when seeing the word ‘orange’ displayed in that hue.
The Stroop Effect
This exercise is an example of the Stroop effect. Dr Smith explained the cognitive phenomenon: “If that was much harder and you needed to pause, then you just experienced the Stroop effect. One explanation for this is that your brain can read a word faster than it can label a colour.”
This concept has support from Simply Psychology, which outlines: “In psychology, the Stroop effect is the delay in reaction time between automatic and controlled processing of information, in which the names of words interfere with the ability to name the colour of ink used to print the words.”
Furthermore, the website notes: “The Stroop effect is a psychological phenomenon demonstrating interference in reaction time of a task.”
The TikTok community was eager to weigh in on Dr Smith’s video demonstration. A user commented: “I didn’t have to pause it!” while another expressed their shock: “Ooohh my brain is fast I’m surprised.”
Then, someone confessed: “The text says red, the colour is green. I said yellow”, and another pointed out how dyslexia unexpectedly offered them an advantage: “Finally. A task where dyslexia is useful!”
Dr Julie Smith isn’t just exploring the quirks of our cognition online, she is also a renowned author. Her book, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?, is a Sunday Times bestseller with a million copies sold and aims to deliver “simple but expert advice and powerful coping techniques” to fortify readers’ resilience against life’s challenges.
The guide comprises “short, bite-sized entries” covering a multitude of subjects including managing anxiety, responding to criticism, finding motivation and more.