The Stroop effect and selective attention: intrusion of automatic semantic processing on the performance of a colour identification task.

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The Stroop effect and selective attention: intrusion of automatic semantic processing on the performance of a colour identification task.

Abstract. ?Early "bottleneck" theories of selective attention allowed for only one channel of input to be semantically analysed, other information being discarded. Later modifications to attention theory proposed that all inputs were analysed but that much of this is unconscious and automatic. However, automatic processes are difficult to unlearn and control. This paper reports a study of the Stroop effect, that these overlearned, automatic processing could intrude on a colour identification task. It was found that ink colour identification was slower for a list of colour names than when neutral words were used and that unconscious semantic processing was taking place. ? ? ?

Introduction.

Models of selective attention deal with processes that occur when multiple streams of information is input. They have been conceptualised as an information processing structure; information stored in memory, or input from the senses, is processed by a limited-capacity cognitive system. One of the earliest models was developed by Broadbent[ref.1] who considered that incoming information on different sensory "channels" was selectively filtered and that only one stream could be semantically processed at a