PSYC2050 Lecture 12: Attentional Control (continued)
Lecture 12 – Attentional Control (continued)
Automaticity
• Practising tasks over a long period of time can begin to reduce the cognitive
processes that are required to do them
• Tasks become automatic
• Kahneman's Capacity Theory
o Over-learned tasks become automatic and consume fewer resources
o Substantial practise:
• Improves performance
• Reduces effort
• Facilitates re-structuring and co-ordination of concurrent tasks
Everyday Automaticity
• With practise many tasks can be performed with little effort such as
o Driving a car
o Riding a bike
Lab Work with Automaticity
• Shiffrin and Schneider (1977)
o Key results
• Categorical
▪ Either had memory set of 2 or 4
▪ With lots of training, accuracy gets very good and there is no
difference after a lot of sessions between 2 and 4 memory
items
• Mixed
▪ No amount of training will bring the two conditions together
▪ More difficult to look for two items than it is for 4
Characterising Automatic Processes
• Without awareness
• Without conscious deliberation
• Without expenditure of resources
• Fast
• Rigid/habitual
