Stroop-Like Interference in the Fruit Stroop Test in Typical Development

Abstract

This study examined Stroop-like interference in the fruit Stroop test among 271 5 - 12-year-old children and young adults divided into five age groups: 64 5 - 6-year-olds, 65 7 - 8-year-olds, 60 9 - 10-year-olds, 46 11 - 12-year-olds, and 36 young adults (18 - 23-year-olds). Participants were ad-ministered a paper-and-pencil version of the fruit Stroop test, which includes the canonical color task, the superficial color task, and the fruit name task. In these tasks, participants were presented with line-drawings of fruits having strongly associated colors (e.g., yellow banana) and were asked to name the ink colors of the fruits, name the colors the fruit “should be”, or read the fruit name. The results indicated robust interference in the canonical color task of the fruit Stroop test, suggesting that this task is useful to assess individual differences of inhibitory control in typical development.