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Word against colour – Thinking and stepping training

Thinking and stepping training

Exercise 3: Word against colour

The card reads "red", printed in green. You answer one of the two and pass over the other.

Aim

You practise picking the right one of two contradictory pieces of information. The task goes back to a paper from 1935 and is named after its author, the Stroop task.

Equipment in the practice

  • Four reaction lights in four colours
  • A card set with colour words printed in a different colour
  • A chair with a backrest

Equipment at home

  • Four coloured sheets on the floor: red, green, blue, yellow
  • Eight to twelve cards you label yourself. Write the word "RED" with a green pen, the word "BLUE" with a yellow pen and so on.
  • A second person to hold up the cards

Setting up

  • Place the four coloured sheets on the floor in a half circle in front of you.
  • The distance is about one stride.
  • The second person stands in front of you at eye level and holds the cards so you can read them without turning your head.
  • Agree which rule applies before you start.

How to do it

  1. Stand in the middle, feet hip width apart.
  2. Rule A is: step onto the colour the word is printed in.
  3. Rule B is: step onto the colour the word names.
  4. The second person holds up a card.
  5. Step onto the matching target and return to the middle.
  6. Sixteen signals make one round. Do three rounds with one minute of rest.

Three levels

Level 1: half matching

On half the cards the word and the print colour agree. Only rule A applies. You have three seconds. One hand rests on the backrest.

Level 2: always conflicting

On every card the word and the print colour differ. Rule A still applies. The time window is one and a half seconds. Your hand is free.

Level 3: rule on call

Before each card the second person calls "colour" or "word", switching irregularly. You step according to the rule called last.

If you practise on your own

Place the labelled cards face down on a table beside you and turn them over one at a time. For level 3, make two piles, one per rule, and draw from them alternately after a roll of a die.

Safety

  • You are reading, not looking at the floor. Check before each round that the sheets are still in place.
  • Stay at level 1 as long as you have to lower your head to read.
  • If you have red-green colour blindness, use blue, yellow, black and white instead of red and green.

Duration and dosage

Six to eight minutes. Two to three times a week. This exercise works well as a second block after choice stepping.

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