Automacity
- 2. DEFINITION “It is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit
- 3. EXAMPLES Walking, speaking, bicycle riding, driving, or playing an instrument
- 4. TYPES OF PROCESSING There are two types of processing 1. Controlled processing 2. Automatic processing
- 5. Controlled processing Controlled processing requires some conscious control to complete itself. Example: Driving a car, using a computer
- 6. Automatic processing Automatic processes complete themselves without conscious control by subject. Example Brushing,walking,eating
- 7. Automatic processing Different tasks require different amount of mental efforts to perform them. Some become so well practiced and routine that they require very minimal mental capacity. Cognitive psychologists use the term “automatic processing” for such skills.
- 8. Automatic and Practice As much we practiced a task, mental capacity require to perform it minimized. The more a process practiced the less attention it requires.
- 9. Automaticity and Our Cognitive Process: Shriffrin & Schneider argue that it is best to think of automaticity as a matter of degree rather than a distinct category. We can describe the way through which practice affects attentional limitations through a study conducted by Underwood (1974) on a psychologist named Moray. Who has spent many years studying shadowing (split attention studies).
- 10. Moray can report most of the unattended channels because for him shadowing has become automatic. Automaticity or automatic processing develops from the slower more resource- limited controlled processing.
- 11. Example Crawl before you walk, and walk before you run – slow and controlled leads to fast and automatic.
- 12. When is a skill automatic? According to posner and Snyder (1975) a skill is automatic if it: 1. Occurs without intention. 2. Does not give rise to conscious awareness. 3. Does not interfere with other mental activities.
- 13. Pros and cons of automaticity Pros: 1. It allows us to perform routine activities without much concentration or mental effort 2. It doesn’t require much attention. 3. It completes themselves without conscious control by the subject
- 14. Cons: 1. We may make silly mistakes. 2. We may fall to remember what we did. 3. We are not able to show others how we do a task
- 15. EXPERIMENTS: Shriffrin & Dumais (1982) and Shriffrin & Schneider (1977) performed a series of experiments contrasting controlled VS. Automatic processing.
- 16. Shriffrin & Dumais’s experiment In their experiments, subjects were presented with visual arrays. The subjects were given a target letter or number and instructed to scan a series of visual displays for the target.
- 17. Features of experiments Frame size Categories of conditions Relationship between target and other items of frame.
- 18. Frame size Each frame has one, two or four characters on it. This factor is referred to as frame size. G T H I L 5 characters G T H I J K L 1 2 I 9 characters
- 19. Categories of conditions There are two types of conditions: 1.Same category condition 2.Different category condition
- 20. Same category condition In it the target is a letter as well as all the characters on the frame and you have to recognize one letter out of them. Example G K L M N R S Y Z K N
- 21. Different category condition In it the target is a number surrounded by letters on the frame. Example G K 3 L M N R 5 S Y Z K N
- 22. If the target appears on the frame, subject responds “Yes”, if it doesn’t appear on the frame the subject responds “No”.
- 23. RESULTS In the different category condition: Reaction time was 80 milliseconds and accuracy was 95% No effect of frame size
- 24. In the same category condition: Reaction time was 400 milliseconds and accuracy was 95%. Accuracy and RT distorted as frame size increased.
- 25. Shiffrin and Schneider’s experiment Thy ran another experiment to check whether practice can make a difficult task easy one. In this experiment the target always came from one set of letters.
- 26. These target letters were B C D F G H J K L and the distracters were Q R S T V W X Y Z.
- 27. After 2100 trails subjects were at the same level of accuracy and reaction time as the different condition in the previous experiment. Thus subject needs 2100 trails of practice to become as much responsive as in different category condition.
- 28. Results Reaction time =80 ms Accuracy =95% Results shows that practice can make a difficult task an easy one.
- 29. Criteria for automaticity Hasher and Zacks (1979) proposed five criteria to distinguish between automatic and control processes. They also made predictions based on these five criteria
- 30. These five criteria are following: 1. Intentional vs. Incidental learning: 2. Effect of instruction and practice: 3. Task interference 4. Depression or high arousal 5. Developmental trends
- 31. Intentional vs. Incidental learning Intentional learning: “Intentional learning occurs when we deliberately try to learn something”.
- 32. Example Learning of how to ride a bicycle How to make a presentation
- 33. Incidental learning “It occurs when we are not deliberately trying to learn something”.
- 34. Example Parents say their children do not lie but parents lie themselves. Children learn their actions rather saying.
- 35. Incidental learning is as effective as intentional learning for automatic processes but is less effective for effortful learning. Because in incidental learning we are not consciously learn which is a necessary thing in effortful learning.
- 36. Effect of instruction and practice Both practice and instruction effect effortful processes as both help in learning well. But instructions on how to perform a task and practice don’t effect automatic processes because they are already learned so well.
- 37. Example Expert cricketer come in ground and coach says when you see ball hit it. It is not necessary to say because expert cricketer already knows what he has to do.
- 38. Task interference Automatic processes shouldn’t interfere with each other because they require little or no capacity. Effortful processes require considerable capacity and should interfere with each other when they exceed the amount of available capacity.
- 39. Depression or high arousal Emotional states such as depression or high emotional arousal can reduce the effectiveness of effortful processes. if we are in sad mood and someone give us a difficult and demanding task we can’t concentrate on that task and can’t learn well.
- 40. Example When we are in sad mood we are not able to learn and pay attention in class room.
- 41. Automatic processes aren’t affected by emotional states. Example If we have to brush our teeth we can do it even if we are in sad mood.
- 42. Developmental trends Automatic processes show little change with age. Once a task is practiced then the age doesn’t matter. They (most of automatic processes) acquired early in life and do not decline in old age.
- 43. Effortful processes show developmental changes. They are not performed as well by young children or the elderly. There are many things that old people can’t perform. Because these Tasks demand some capacity level or concentration.
- 44. Example An old man can’t learn well and easily to drive a car as a young person can.
- 45. Conclusion The basic difference between automatic and effortful processes, according to these five criteria are:
- 46. Intentional vs. Incidental learning Automatic :no difference Effortful : intentional is better
- 47. Effect of instruction and practice Automatic : no effects Effortful : Improve performance
- 48. Task interference Automatic : no interference Effortful : interference
- 49. Depression or high arousal Automatic : No effects Effortful : poor performance
- 50. Developmental trends Automatic: NONE Effortful : Poor Performance