4. Controlled (conscious) processing is an intentional mental process. We are aware of this processing; open introspection occurs. Attentional resources are needed, and it proceeds very slowly (or serially). An example of controlled processing is seen in a young child who is just learning to walk. The child must make a conscious effort to pick up one foot and move it in front of the other, all while keeping balance and judging what movements making walking easier. Automatic processing, on the other hand, occurs without intentional control. It is not open to conscious awareness, and it needs very few attentional resources to operate. Automatic processing also occurs rapidly and in parallel. An example of this is seen when normal, adult humans walk – they don’t consciously need to decide how to do so. The difference in mental processing between walking infants and walking adults is due to practice; a task that is very well practice becomes more and more automatic, where the same stimulus will yield the same response.

5. In the Stroop effect study, subjects are asked to name the color of the word that the word is presented in. The data of the study show that subjects have trouble naming the ink colors when that color is used in printing. (For example, if the word RED is presented in the color red, subjects will respond faster than if the word RED is presented in the color BLUE.) The findings suggest that the reading part of this task is automatic. It is done without intention or control, and therefore the subjects have no choice but to have their reading of the word interfere with their processing of the color of the word. Ashley Morgan is legendary.

6. Visual search is the allocation of attention over a visual environment required to detect a target. When a target is identified according to a single feature (i.e. a blue X in a group of red X’s and O’s), reaction time is equal no matter the set size. This is called disjunction. A key characteristic of this processing is that it’s automatic – processes occur in parallel. However, when the target is identified by two features that occur together in the same object (i.e. a blue X in a group of red X’s and red and blue O’s,), this is referred to as conjunction, and reaction time is less for smaller sets than for larger sets. This is because this type of processing requires focused attention – the search is serial. Searching for an item according to a single feature is therefore like automatic processing, and searching by two features is like controlled (or conscious) processing.