Tests of the automaticity of reading: dilution of Stroop effects by color-irrelevant stimuli.

A color word shown next to a color bar can facilitate color naming if it is congruent with the correct response; otherwise it will interfere with color naming. The congruence and conflict effects are both diminished (diluted) by the presentation of a color-neutral word elsewhere in the field. A row of X's also produces some dilution. The dilution effect represents attentional interference rather than sensory interaction or response conflict. Because Stroop effects are susceptible to interference, the involuntary reading of color words does not satisfy one of the standard criteria of automaticity.

[1]  A. Treisman.  Strategies and models of selective attention. , 1969, Psychological review.

[2]  S. Keele.  Attention demands of memory retrieval. , 1972, Journal of experimental psychology.

[3]  D. Allport,et al.  On the Division of Attention: A Disproof of the Single Channel Hypothesis , 1972, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[4]  F. Dyer,et al.  Stroop interference with successive presentations of separate incongruent words and colors. , 1973, Journal of experimental psychology.

[5]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Attention and Effort , 1973 .

[6]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  Can attention be allocated to sensory modalities? , 1974 .

[7]  G Wolford,et al.  Perturbation model for letter identification. , 1975, Psychological review.

[8]  M. Posner,et al.  Attention and cognitive control. , 1975 .

[9]  Daniel G Bobrow,et al.  On data-limited and resource-limited processes , 1975, Cognitive Psychology.

[10]  Daniel Gopher,et al.  On the Economy of the Human Processing System: A Model of Multiple Capacity. , 1977 .

[11]  Elizabeth L Bjork,et al.  On the nature of input channels in visual processing. , 1977, Psychological review.

[12]  J. H. Neely.  Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention. , 1977 .

[13]  Walter Schneider,et al.  Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. , 1977 .

[14]  P H Seymour,et al.  Conceptual Encoding and Locus of the Stroop Effect , 1977, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[15]  M. Posner.  Chronometric explorations of mind : the third Paul M. Fitts lectures, delivered at the University of Michigan, September 1976 , 1978 .

[16]  H. Egeth,et al.  Failure of spatial selectivity in vision , 1978 .

[17]  H. Bouma,et al.  Visual search and reading : eye movements and functional visual field : a tutorial review , 1978 .

[18]  L. Hasher,et al.  Automatic and effortful processes in memory. , 1979 .

[19]  G. Logan,et al.  On the Use of a Concurrent Memory Load to Measure Attention and Automaticity , 1979 .

[20]  G. Logan,et al.  When it helps to be misled: Facilitative effects of increasing the frequency of conflicting stimuli in a Stroop-like task , 1979 .

[21]  C M Francolini,et al.  On the nonautomaticity of “automatic” activation: Evidence of selective seeing , 1980, Perception & psychophysics.

[22]  G. Logan.  Attention and automaticity in Stroop and priming tasks: Theory and data , 1980, Cognitive Psychology.

[23]  J. Requin.  Attention and Performance VII , 1980 .

[24]  E. Spelke,et al.  Dividing Attention Without Alternation or Automaticity , 1980 .

[25]  William C. Ogden,et al.  Letter encoding is an obligatory but capacity-demanding operation. , 1981 .

[26]  Joan E. Regan,et al.  Automaticity and learning: Effects of familiarity on naming letters. , 1981 .

[27]  P. Goolkasian.  Retinal location and its effect on the processing of target and distractor information. , 1981 .

[28]  E. C. Poulton,et al.  Influential companions: Effects of one strategy on another in the within-subjects designs of cognitive psychology. , 1982 .

[29]  D. Kahneman,et al.  The cost of visual filtering. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[30]  Raja Parasuraman,et al.  Varieties of attention , 1984 .