Color–object interference: Further tests of an executive control account Wido La Heij a,⇑ , Harrie Boelens b a Cognitive Psychology Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands b Developmental and Educational Psychology Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands article info Article history: Received 9 March 2010 Revised 18 August 2010 Available online 24 September 2010 Keywords: Shape bias Inhibition Executive function Color form Sorting Subitizing abstract Young children are slower in naming the color of a meaningful pic- ture than in naming the color of an abstract form (Stroop-like color–object interference). The current experiments tested an executive control account of this phenomenon. First, color–object interference was observed in 6- and 8-year-olds but not in 12- and 16-year-olds (Experiment 1). Second, meaningful pictures did not interfere in 5- to 7-year-olds’ manual sorting of objects on the basis of color (Experiment 2) or in their naming the number of colored objects in the display, that is, subitizing (Experiment 3). These findings provide support for the view that color–object inter- ference results from the children’s immature inhibition of the pre- potent but irrelevant task of object naming. Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction It is harder to name the color of a stimulus if that stimulus is the name of another color (e.g., the word ‘‘blue” printed in red) than if it is a neutral shape (e.g., a solid square printed in red). This phenomenon was first reported and studied by Stroop (1935) and, hence, is usually termed the Stroop effect. Stroop also found that naming the colors of neutral shapes was more difficult than reading color words and obtained no evidence for a difference between reading color words printed in noncorresponding colors and reading color words printed in black. Thus, the Stroop effect is part of an asymmetric pattern in which color naming is hard and influenced by the way the colors are presented, whereas reading color words is easy and not influenced by their coloring. Stroop’s experimental paradigm is interesting because it arranges stimuli that call for different kinds of 0022-0965/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.08.007 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: laheij@fsw.leidenuniv.nl (W. La Heij). Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 108 (2011) 156–169 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Experimental Child Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jecp