title: Automaticity in reading and the Stroop task: testing the limits of involuntary word processing.
abstract: We investigated the parameters of involuntary word reading in the Stroop task in 7 experiments. Experiments 1-4 varied response modality and the presence of congruent word trials in a test of the claim that presenting a Stroop color word with only one letter in the target color eliminates the Stroop effect. Experiments 5 and 6 addressed the roles of spatial attention and orthographic processing as possible mechanisms behind the reduction of Stroop effects with the single-letter format. Experiment 7 investigated the limits of involuntary reading under optimal conditions for selective processing of rectangular color patch targets. We found that the single-letter format reduced but never eliminated Stroop effects, spatial attention but not orthographic processing plays a role in the effect of the single-letter format, and word reading is not completely prevented even with austere presentation conditions. We conclude with a defense of the involuntariness criterion for automaticity in the Stroop task, particularly when word reading is viewed in the context of a skilled performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, CPO#1960, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, NC 28804, USA. TLBrown@unca.edu
authors.forename: Tracy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Joneleit
authors.forename: Cathy S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Carli Rose
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001332:Automatism; D003463:Cues; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014825:Vocabulary