UTILITY AND LIMIT OF AUTOMATIZATION

Automatization may presents both negative and positive aspects. The aim of this chapter is to analyse whether automatization is simply elegant and economical or it may also adds costs and limits in human performance. To begin, the advantages to having two different processing modes is considered, in effect dual processing mechanisms would likely not have evolved unless there were survival advantages to having both modes of processing. Secondly, benefits of automatization are considered: the greatest advantage of automatic over controlled processes is that they operate more rapidly and can occur in parallel, they are also fast, effortless, autonomous and error-free. Moreover costs of automaticity are analysed, they inhere in the lack of flexibility and control that results when we learn too well and are not conscious of doing some tasks. In the concluding section some thoughts are offered about the fact that there is no clear distinction but a gradation between the two processes and their implication about costs and benefits.