Color tap
The alarm that makes you beat the Stroop test
Color tap is a color puzzle alarm built on the Stroop effect: a color word appears printed in a different color, and you tap the color of the ink, not the word. Reading is automatic, so your first answer will be the word, and it will be wrong. Getting it right means overriding a reflex, and the alarm keeps ringing until you have done that enough times.
How it works
- 1
Choose Color tap as the mission and a level: Easy is 3 rounds with 3 color buttons, Medium 5 rounds with 4, Hard 8 rounds with 5.
- 2
When the alarm rings, tap Start mission. A word such as BLUE appears, printed in another color, above a row of color buttons.
- 3
Tap the color it is printed in. Tap the color the word names and you get “That was the word, not the color. One more round.” A wrong tap adds a round, and there is no time limit.
- 4
Win the last round and the alarm stops. Pressing the system Stop button instead doesn't count, and the alarm rings again.
What you can set
- Level: Easy (3 rounds, 3 buttons), Medium (5 rounds, 4 buttons) or Hard (8 rounds, 5 buttons)
- Colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Two neighbors on the color wheel, like red and orange, never appear in the same round, so a wrong answer is a slip rather than a guess between two shades.
- Ring during missions (per alarm, on by default): switch it off to play in quiet
What is the Stroop effect?
When a word names one color and is printed in another, naming the ink is slower and more error-prone than reading the word, because reading happens without trying. The effect is named after the psychologist John Ridley Stroop. In the mission, the word is never printed in its own color, so every round is a real test rather than a reading exercise.
Color tap or Color search?
A “color alarm” can mean two different WakeOps missions. Color tap is this screen puzzle, and it can be done in bed. Color search draws a color and makes you find something that color with the camera, so it gets you up and looking around the house.
Free to download for iPhone (iOS 17.6 or later). Setting alarms needs WakeOps Premium, an in-app subscription. Every mission can be tried for free.
Common questions
What if I'm color blind?
Choose a different mission. Color tap is the only WakeOps mission that needs color vision, and its setup screen says so (“Needs color vision”) before you pick it. Odd shape, Memory, Maze and Math work by shape or number, never color.
Is it harder than Math?
Different rather than harder. Math is work you can do slowly; Color tap asks you to override a reflex, which stays awkward even once you know the trick.
Is there a time limit?
No. A wrong tap adds a round instead, so rushing only makes the mission longer.
