ABSTRACT

Automatization refers to one’s “ability to understand and respond without an inordinate amount of time to formulate a[n action]…without undue groping, hesitation, or pauses” (Gatbonton & Segalowitz, 1988, p. 474). In other words, it refers to one’s capacity to perform simple, repetitive tasks that have been so highly practiced that they require a minimum of conscious effort for efficient execution. According to Eakin and Douglas (1971), examples of these tasks included many everyday activities such as walking, talking, reading, writing, and maintaining perceptual constancies. Automatization occurs as the individual becomes more “adept at the attention, encoding, evaluation and control processes associated with a class of tasks” (Aster & Clark, 1985). When a task is automatized, the relevant cognitive processes function quickly, without interference from other cognitive processes that can draw attentional resources away (Gatbonton & Segalowitz, 1988).