Cognitive Psychology Exam 2 Practice

Automatic processing refers to mental activities that run quickly with little attention and often without conscious control. It frees cognitive resources because it doesn’t demand deliberate effort, so you can perform familiar tasks in the background while you focus on something else. For example, reading common words or tying a well-practiced shoe-tying sequence happens largely automatically. This is why such tasks feel effortless once they’re well learned, unlike new or complex tasks that require focused, deliberate effort (controlled processing). So the true statement captures that automatic processing is fast, attention-light, and often outside conscious control. The idea that it’s always under conscious control, or that it only occurs with unfamiliar tasks, doesn’t fit how automatic processing operates.