Two stages in postcategorical filtering and selection

Abstract

In a modified Stroop paradigm, Kahneman and Henik (1981) varied the spatial location of incompatible color words in relation to the position of the ink color to be named. A large effect on reaction time was found if the word was in the same position as the color, and a greatly reduced effect was found if it was in a different location. Kahneman and Henik concluded that (1) attention can be directed only to preattentively defined perceptual objects, (2) attention facilitates all the responses associated with properties or elements of the selected object, and (3) word reading is not automatic as proposed in unlimited capacity (UC) models. To evaluate these conclusions, the same paradigm was used in three experiments. The first two essentially replicated Kahneman and Henik's findings and supported the first two conclusions. The third experiment tested the capacity issue. The results provided no reason for rejecting the UC assumption. A theoretical analysis is outlined showing how a UC processing model with an object-selection stage and a subsequent dimension-selection stage can account for the results obtained. This model is an extended version of Van der Heijden's (1981) postcategorical filtering model. © 1984 Psychonomic Society, Inc.