User:Jsteph98/Automatic and controlled processes

Automatic processes are a lot more complicate then people may think. Some examples of automatic processes includes motor skills, implicit biases, procedural tasks, and priming.

have divided attention, divided attention is the ability to switch between tasks. Some tasks are easier to perform with others like talking and driving. But when traffic increases you aren’t able to hold a conversation because you need to focus more on driving then on talking.

One study that was conducted by Forster and Lavie found that when focused on a task we see processing capacity, this is when people can handle only a set amount of information at a time meaning we have a limit on how much we can processes at any given moment. Then there is the perceptual load which means how difficult the task is. When a task is low load we do not have to think about it as much but when a task is high load then we really need to focus on it and cannot be distracted.

There are also some actions that we do that are a combination of both automatic and controlled. Some examples can include brushing your teeth and any point you can really think about what you are doing and really think about each tooth you are scrubbing but for the most part you don’t think about you just do it. Another example of this would be playing a musical instrument, and swimming. Some processes can even start as controlled and move into automatic. For example, riding a bike, when you first start to learn you have to concentrate on where your hands are how to keep it steady, how to pedal, so on and so forth. At some point you figured out how to do it and now riding a bike is automatic and you don’t have to focus on what your doing you just do it. Other examples can include brushing your teeth and any point you can really think about what you are doing