[Previous] [Next]

Controlled versus Automatic Processing: All about Speed?

• The Stroop effect illustrates an important aspect of selective attention: It is easy to ignore some features of the environment, but not others.

• Explanation: word reading is faster than color naming, so color naming simply does not have the opportunity to interfere with word reading.

• Consistent with a distinction between two types of cognitive processes: controlled and automatic (Shiffrin & Schneider, 1977).

• Controlled processes are assumed to be voluntary, to require attention, and to be relatively slow.

• Automatic processes are assumed to be involuntary, to not require attention, and to be relatively fast.