AUTOMATICITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS - IS PERCEIVING THE WORD NECESSARY FORREADING IT

Definitions of automaticity imply insensitivity of the Stroop effect t o conscious perceiving of the word. Subjects in the Stroop task report ed the meaning of the stimulus word (in addition to its color) in 7% o f the trials. The magnitude of the Stroop effect in these trials was c orrelated with subjects' ability to report the stimulus meaning. Furth ermore, the effect was absent when subjects failed to report the stimu lus meaning. These findings challenge the assumption that automatic pr ocessing is unconscious. A distinction between automatic and nonautoma tic processing in terms of modes of consciousness is discussed.