The review summarizes empirical findings and theoretical views related to the Stroop color-word phenomenon, in which naming of a color is disrupted and delayed by the presence of an "irrelevant" word denoting a color different from the color patch. It was deemed important to increase awareness of this phenomenon, since it involves basic processes of perception, identification, reading, and naming, which account for much of human behavior. Experimental findings were emphasized in a review of research, most of which was produced since the 1966 review of Jensen and Rohwer. One purpose of the review was to illustrate use of the Stroop paradigm as a tool for the study of word meaning, bilingual language organization, and perception and processing differences between the two hemispheres. The incompleteness, and in some cases the inappropriateness, of existing explanations of the Stroop phenomenon also were discussed. (Author/DD)