My favorite topic that we have covered so far has been Attention, mostly because it is something that I have always struggled with.  Within the lesson, concept called automatic processing was brought up. I found this so interesting because it is something that I recognize during my daily life and always said that I was on “Auto pilot.” I never realized that there was a term for it and that it was a common thing. Automatic processing occurs unintentionally, using only some of a person’s cognitive resources (Sternberg & Sternberg, 2017).

Throughout my daily life, I spend most of my time feeling like I am in a state of automatic processing. At work, I can spend my entire day zoning out or thinking about any and everything else, but still manage to correctly complete my tasks. I work as a Pharmacy Technician, so my job requires me to label prepackaged blister cards and then run them through a scanner to ensure the label matches the drug. I have been doing this for 9 years, so it makes sense that I can complete this without any conscious effort as I have been practicing the same exact actions every single day.

Now that I know that my “Auto Pilot Mode” has a name and is a real concept within cognitive psychology, I can make total sense of how I am able to perform tasks without even being aware of it. It is so interesting to me that even tasks that require the carrying out of motor skills can be done unintentionally and subconsciously.

References:
Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2017). Cognitive psychology. Cengage Learning.