Essay On Shallow Processing

Introduction

At the cognitive level of analysis humans are seen as behavioral entrepreneurs. Cognitive researchers have been interested in how verbal reaction is effected during interference or inhibition. According to Craig and Lockhart (1972) information is processed two ways. Shallow processing takes two forms one being structural processing (appearance), this occurs when only the physical qualities of something is encoded i.e. what the letters spell versus the color of the word. Shallow processing only involves maintenance rehearsal and leads to fairly short-term retention of information. Deep processing involves elaboration rehearsal which is a more meaningful analysis (e.g. images, thinking, associations etc.) of information and leads to better recall. It is generally easier for people to interpret the word itself which involves deep processing than to interpret the colors of the word which involves shallow processing. According to the speed of processing model word processing is much faster than color processing, thus, in a situation of interference between words and colors, when the task is to report the color, the word information arrives at the decision process stage earlier than the color information, and in result processing confusion.

This demonstrated in an experiment by John Ridley Stroop (1935) where he investigated the how well student participants were able to state the color of the word rather than reading the word itself. The researcher predicted that naming the color of the word takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the color of the ink matches the name of the color. In the experiment participants were given a ten word sample before the first reading of each test. At the beginning of each test t...

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Appendix II - Student consent

Forms

Consent form

• I have been informed about the nature of the research.

• I understand that I have the right to withdraw from the research at any time, and that any information/data about me will remain confidential.

• My anonymity will be protected as my name will not be identifiable.

• The research will be conducted so that I will not be demeaned in any way.

You will have the opportunity to find out the results at a later date.

I give my informed consent to participating in this research.

(Circle gender) F M Age_______ Grade level ________

Signature ____________________________________________________

Appendix III- Standardized test

Read the color of the word.

Example: PINK

• Blue

Interference test (incongruent)