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Introduction

Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate the extent that automatic tasks have an effect on the speed of saying the words. It was assumed that participants will take significantly longer to say colour words in a different colour to what the word is on a word list then when the colour word is in the same colour because reading a word has become an automatic process. The method of this study used a repeated measures and matched pairs design and involved giving participants a selection of six lists; three inconsistent with colour and the word and three consistently worded. The sampling method was opportunity sampling taken from a sampling body of 16-19 year old students at Richmond Upon Thames College. Results were tested using the Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks test; this showed that there is a significant difference in the mean time taken to say the inconsistent list in comparison to the consistent list. However, environmental factors such as the noise of the surroundings have not been taken into account adding a major limitation to this study. Introduction The topic area I am going to study is attention, looking more specifically into automatic processing. Automatic processing is a concept in the area of attention that states that some tasks can be processed without the awareness of the person and don't interfere with the ability to process other tasks, for example someone who can type and talk to someone at the same time. This person can type without thinking about it; it has become an automatic process. Schiffrin and Schneider (1977) pioneered research in this area. ...read more.

Middle

This method was chosen because this test is designed for a hypothesis that predicts a difference between two sets of data, data that is a score (ergo related) and can be used with interval data. This experiment satisfies all three of these criteria. Calculated value of T = 0 Critical Value of T at 5% level of significance = 60 The calculated value of T is less then the critical value of T, this supports the directional hypothesis. The directional hypothesis is therefore supported Participants take significantly longer to say colour words in a different colour to what the word is on a word list then when the colour word is in the same colour. The null hypothesis is therefore rejected, there is a difference in the time taken for participants to say colour words in a different colour to what the word is on a word list then when the colour word is in the same colour. Discussion Explanation of Findings The research has shown a clear distinction between the time taken to say the inconsistent and consistent lists; it takes significantly longer to say the inconsistent list in comparison to the consistent list. This difference is due to the participant not being able to control the automatic processing of reading the word so it conflicts with the controlled process of saying the colour of the word. It was also apparent that the group that find this task the most difficult is a student studying English; one English student was used in this sample (participant 11) and that individual was responsible for the longest time in the inconsistent list but very close to the mean in the consistent list. ...read more.

Conclusion

- Consistent 2 - Inconsistent 3 - Consistant 4 - Inconsistant 5 - Consistant 6 - Inconsistant 1 7.7 11.6 8.2 9.2 8.2 10.7 2 5.4 12.7 5.1 17.8 5.2 13.9 3 4.7 10.4 4.4 11.8 6.8 8.8 4 6.6 16.4 7.6 11.9 6.6 11 5 7.5 7.7 5.5 7.6 9.2 8.9 6 5.4 12.7 5.9 10.5 5.2 10.4 7 5.1 10.5 5.4 9 5.6 7.7 8 7.6 14.1 8 12.5 7.5 13 9 6.5 10.7 7.1 17 7.2 11.9 10 8.7 10.7 7.7 11.9 8 10.2 11 7.6 15.5 6.1 17.8 4.9 17.4 12 7.4 13.7 7.7 15.8 8 12 13 8.1 11.3 8 13.3 7.1 13.1 14 6.5 12.9 6.5 10.3 6.5 10.1 15 4.4 10.2 5.6 11.2 6 8.7 16 5.7 10.8 5.1 14.2 6 12.4 17 4.7 12.2 8.1 11. 7 5.3 11.1 18 5.8 8.9 6.1 13.4 7.6 8.6 19 5.4 9.9 5.8 10.9 4.8 13.1 20 4.3 8 4.2 7.4 3.9 7.8 4. Mean and Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks test Participant Inconsistant List Mean Consistant List Mean Difference Rank 1 10.5 8.0 2.5 2 2 14.8 5.2 9.6 19 3 10.3 5.3 5.0 10 4 13.1 6.9 6.2 16 5 8.1 7.4 0.7 1 6 11.2 5.5 5.7 13 7 9.1 5.4 3.7 5 8 13.2 7.7 5.5 11 9 13.2 6.9 6.3 17 10 10.9 8.1 2.8 3 11 16.9 6.2 10.7 20 12 13.8 7.7 6.1 15 13 12.6 7.7 4.8 9 14 11.1 6.5 4.6 7 15 10.0 5.3 4.7 8 16 12.5 5.6 6.9 18 17 11.7 6.0 5.6 12 18 10.3 6.5 3.8 6 19 11.3 5.3 6.0 14 20 7.7 4.1 3.6 4 OVERALL 11.615 6.365 T = 0 (because there are no negative numbers) Dipak Kanabar ...read more.

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