Color naming of a non-color word Stroop task as a dual-task

The color-word interference task, a variant of the Stroop task, requires participants to name the ink-color (e.g., “red”) of non-color words (e.g., “cat”) while ignoring the identity of the words. The standard finding is that the time to name the ink-color is affected by factors known to affect how long it takes to read aloud the non-color word (e.g., word frequency). Here, we propose that performance in this task is best understood using a dual-task framework. According to this account, the color-word interference task consists of an overt color naming task (word production) and a covert word reading task. Each of these tasks contains processes that compete for access to the same resource limited system. Four experiments are reported testing the predictions of the dual-task framework using the so-called cognitive-slack logic. The dual-task framework successfully accounts for six effects in the color-word interference task.