“- EXPERIMENT Conduct an experiment based on the materials in Chapter 7 of Exploring Psychological Research Methods. Analyse the data and write a 2000-word report on this experiment.”

Automatic processes can occur without the need of attention.  Reading is one of those processes.  At the early stages it is effortful and requires conscious attempts, but as the reading process progresses minimal conscious effort is required.  The reading task is considered to be automatised (Francis, Neath, & VanHorn, 2008).

J.R. Stroop (1935) attended a study in order to test the effects of automaticity, specifically on reading.  In the 1st Condition he showed his participants a 100 words, each of which spelled out a colour.  The ink of each word was a different colour than what the word spelled.  The participants were asked to report the colour of the ink the word was written and the reaction times were recorded.  In the 2nd Condition Stroop showed his participants a 100 sets of squares, each shown in certain colours.  The participants were asked to report those colours and again…(short extract)