Thus, processing can have automatic components and components that either must be deliberately controlled or that can be controlled. Experiments like the present one are used by researchers to analyze the different information processing abilities we have, how they relate to each other, and how much control we have over them. The mechanics of this lab are as follows. In each case you are to name the ink color, not the color word. The microphone on the top of the monitor will record the time from the onset of the stimulus until the first sound is made.
Subjects are to respond as quickly as they can without making errors.
The number of errors are to be tabulated partly to make sure that the subject is not guessing or responding with insufficient consideration. Another reason is to determine whether errors follow the same pattern as the RTs, with the harder conditions giving both long RTs and high error rates. The mean RT is based only on correct RTs. Nonwords in various colors 2. English words, not colorrelated, in various colors 3.