ABSTRACT

Automatic or unconscious processing is important in a broad range of cognitive task, including reading. Some of the commonly correlates of automaticity include, first, that an automatic process should operate outside of awareness; second, that it may operate in the absence of intention; and third, that it should not interfere with other processses.. This study discusses methods used to assess unconscious processes during reading like: eye -tracking methods, window methods, lexical decision task, the priming paradigm, stimulus onset asynchrony, Stroop color-naming task. Reading is not a single mental operation; rather, theorists distinguish among component processes of reading at the word, sentence, and text level. Word-level processes include encoding and lexical access. This components are automatic because takes place without the deliberate intervention of the reader. The words of discourse automatically activate their close associates. Sentence-level processes include syntactic parsing processes. Parsing operations are extremely rapid and their effects may be highly transitory and mainly automatic. The reading process is best characterized as one changing patterns of activation. As each new statement is encountered, activations fluctuate as a result of the association-based and coherence-based processes Automatic spreading activation mechanism is fast acting, is independent of subject conscious control, and primarily produces facilitation for related targets and little inhibition for unrelated targets. The transient fluctuations of activation that result from inferential processes during reading form the basis for a stable memory representation of the text.

KEYWORDS: unconscious processing, reading process, text comprehension.