Each day our brain helps us solve simple problems and control our bodily functions, but despite its wonderful abilities, it is also a reason we sometimes make dumb mistakes.
The Stroop Effect is the term used to describe the brain’s ability to basically hide the truth. For instance, if you’re reading something, you may not notice a typo because the adult brain recognizes words based on the way they look. This means that certain letters could be left out of a word and the reader wouldn’t notice because our brains often correct things that are not as they should be.
The Stroop Effect not only impacts the way we read, it can also impact the way we look at images since the brain often categorizes things in order to identify objects.
For example, an image has been circulating the internet recently and asking viewers to find the letter “T.” The letter is hidden among a bunch of “L” shaped objects that are red, blue, and bright green. At first glance, it doesn’t look like there’s a “T” in the image at all and one might spend quite a bit of time searching before noticing it.
The only hint given is that the “T” is not red, and after combing through the shapes, the “T” eventually becomes visible if you concentrate hard enough on finding it. But it’s difficult to find the shape because our brains are categorizing the “T” shape as similar to the ones surrounding it, even though it is different.
