Selective and divided attention in a Stroop task.

Abstract

A series of 3 experiments used a modified version of the Stroop task to document some conditions under which attention may be differentially deployed. Within limits, subjects may choose either to selectively attend to a single stimulus or to distribute processing resources over several stimuli. Attentional strategies may be actively chosen to suit prevailing conditions. Once established, these different modes of attending are differentially open to strategic modulation.