In Schneider and Shiffrin's experiment, in which participants were asked to indicate whether a target stimulus was present in a series of rapidly presented "frames," divided attention was easier

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Here is the question and the given options, analyzed option by option to understand why one choice aligns with Schneider and Shiffrin's findings:
Option 1: 'when verbal processing was prohibited by the experimenters.' This would suggest that divided attention improves when verbal processes are blocked. However, the classic Schneider and Shiffrin setup manipulated automaticity through practice rather than simply restricting verbal processing; prohibiting verbal processing is not the central mechanism they identified for making divided attention easier.
Option 2: 'once processing had become automatic.' This matches the core idea of their findings: with sufficient practice, a target detection task can become automatic, reducing cognitive load and allowing attention to be divided more easily between streams. When processing is automatized, the task requires less deliberate control, freeing resources for additional stimuli.
Option 3: 'when processing was done verbally.' Framing the issue as verbal processing implies a modality-specific limitation, but the key result in their framework is not about the need for verbal encoding per se; rather, it’s about automaticity reducing attentional demand, which can occur with nonverbal as well as verbal tasks depending on how automatized the processing becomes.
Option 4: 'when processing was more controlled.' This option runs counter to the notion of automaticity. More controlled processing typically consumes more attentional resources, making divided attention harder, not easier, which contradicts the typical finding in their rapid-serial-visual presentation paradigm after practice.
In sum, the rationale hinges on the shift from controlled to automatic processing through practice, reducing attentional demands and facilitating divided attention. The other options either misstate the mechanism (verbal restriction, or mere verbal conditions) or describe the opposite of the observed effect (more controlled processing).

In Schneider and Shiffrin's experiment, in which participants were asked to indicate whether a target stimulus was present in a series of rapidly presented "frames," divided attention was easier

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