Patterns of performance on the stroop color and word test in children with learning, attentional, and psychiatric disabilities

The study presented here investigated the performance of children with learning, psychiatric, and attentional disabilities on the Stroop Color and Word Test. Forty-three children diagnosed with a full battery of tests as learning disabled (LD [reading]) in grades K through 6 were matched on age, gender, ethnicity, and grade with 43 normal controls. They were also matched with groups of 43 children with psychiatric disorders and 43 children with attentional problems. All subjects were given the Stroop test, which took about 4 minutes per subject. The results indicated clear differences between the groups, with the LD and the psychiatric/attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) groups generating unique profiles different from the normal controls. The children with LD showed slower reading speed and less interference, while the subjects with ADHD and diagnoses showed impairment only on the Color-Word score. A discriminant analysis using the three basic Stroop scales was able to significantly differentiate the LD group from the non-learning-disabled (NLD) group (89%) and the LD group from a joint Psychiatric/ADHD group (86%). However, results were poorer for differentiating a joint LD/ADHD group from the NLD group (68%) and the LD from the ADHD group (59%). (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.