Cognitive area: Moray Flashcards
What is the cognitive area of psychology interested in?
How we process information and respond to stimuli
What was the focus of Moray’s study?
Auditory attention
What is the background for Moray’s study?
Cherry’s research into the ‘cocktail party effect’ through dichotic listening tasks
What was the aim of Moray’s first study?
To test Cherry’s findings into recalling a rejected passage in a shadowing task through dichotic listening
What was the aim of Moray’s second and third study?
To investigate factors that can affect attention in dichotic listening
Name the tape recorder used in the study
Brenell mark IV tape recorder with two separate outputs into headphones
What gender was the speaker in the recordings?
Male
What was the volume level of each recording?
60 dB, loud enough for the P’s to just about hear them
What was the pre test?
4 passages of prose for the P’s to shadow for practice and to tell the researcher when the passages appeared to be the same volume
Describe the sample for experiment 1
Undergrads and research workers of both sexes
What was faded in and out of one ear while the participants shadowed a prose message in the other ear?
A list of simple words
How many times was each word repeated in the list of words?
35 times
After the passage was complete, what were P’s asked to report? (experiment one)
The content of the shadowed message
After P’s had recalled the content of the shadowed message what type of test were they given? (experiment one)
A recognition test
What was the recognition test composed of?
21 words (7 in the passage, 7 from list and 7 others)
What was the gap between the shadowing and the test? (experiment one)
30 seconds
What was the mean number of recognised words from the 7 words in the shadowed passage?
4.9
What was the mean number of recognised words from the 7 words in the rejected passage?
1.9
What was the mean number of recognised words from the 7 words in neither passage?
2.6
What did Moray conclude in terms of Cherry’s findings from experiment one?
P’s are more able to recognise words from the shadowed passage and almost none of the words from the rejected passage could break the inattentional barrier and therefore supports Cherry’s findings
What was the aim of experiment 2?
Moray wanted to find out what could break the inattentional barrier. Would a message with strong enough meaning to the P be able to break the barrier
Describe the sample used in experiment 2
12 participants
What was the IV of experiment 2?
Whether an instruction within a rejected passage was preceded by the participants name (affective) or was nor preceded by the participants name (non-affective)
What was the DV of experiment 2?
Whether P’s were more likely to hear an instruction in a message theyre not paying attention to if it is preceded by their name
How was the DV in experiment 2 operationalised?
By whether they reported to hearing the instruction or whether they followed the instruction
What type of passages were P’s given in experiment 2?
Light fiction in one ear and also in the other ear
What did both passages contain at the start? (experiment two)
An instruction
When did P’s hear another instruction? (experiment two)
In the middle of the passage
Outline details of the voice that P’s heard in the passages (experiment two)
Steady monotone male voice at about 130 words per minute
How many passages did P’s listen to? (experiment two)
10
How many passages contained affective instructions? (experiment two)
3
How many passages contained non affective instructions? (experiment two)
4
How many passages contained no instructions? (experiment two)
3
What was the experimental design in experiment 2?
Repeated measures
What were P’s told that their aim was? (experiment two)
To make as few errors as possible in their shadowing of the passages
How many times was the affective instruction heard out of how many times it was presented? (experiment two)
20 out of 39
How many times was the non-affective instruction heard out of how many times it was presented? (experiment two)
4 out of 36
What conclusions came out of experiment 2?
P’s are more likely to hear affective instructions than non affective
Were the results in experiment 2 significant?
Yes, there was less than a 1% probability that these results were down to chance
What was the aim of experiment 3?
Would prior warnings about what P’s would be asked about change what participants might hear?
Describe the sample used in experiment 3?
Two groups of 14 students
What was the design of experiment 3?
Independent measures
What was the IV of experiment 3?
Whether they were told they would be asked about the shadowed message or whether they were told to remember all the numbers that they could
What was the DV of experiment 3?
Mean number of digits correctly reported
What were the 5 variety of message in experiment 3?
Numbers towards end of passage Numbers in both passages Numbers only in shadowed message Numbers only in rejected message Control messages - no numbers
What were the results found from experiment 3?
No significant results were found
What did Moray conclude from experiment 3?
That there was no significance because numbers are not important enough to break the ‘inattentional barrier’ - unlike a persons name
Conclusion 1: In a situation where P directs his attention to one message and rejects a message to the other ear……..
Almost none of the verbal content from the rejected message is able to penetrate the block
Conclusion 2: A short list of simple words presented as the rejected message shows no……
Trace of being remembered even when presented many times
Conclusion 3: Subjectively ‘important’ messages such as a persons name can…….
Penetrate the block, thus a P will hear instructions if they are presented with their own name as a part of the rejected message
Conclusion 4: While perhaps not impossible it’s very difficult to make ‘neutral’ material important enough to…..
Break through the block set up in dichotic shadowing
Did Moray break any ethical guidelines?
No
Could Moray’s findings be considered ethnocentric?
Yes as ability was only tested in one language and most likely only on monolingual individuals, people in other cultures who are bilingual may find this task easier
Was Moray’s study internally reliable (standardised procedure/replicable)?
Yes, the experiments were all highly controlled and could easily be replicated with similar controls
Was Moray’s study externally reliable (sample large enough for consistent effect)?
No, each sample was not that large and all most likely similar age/level of education
Was auditory attention really being tested?
Extraneous variables were controlled for however, P’s knew they were being tested so may have demand characteristics which alter their responses
How ecologically valid was the study?
Not very as the set up of headphones and shadowing is not the same kind of attention we give in real life
Define ‘cocktail party effect’
That no matter how deep in conversation you may be at a cocktail party, if someone mentioned your name, this would draw your attention
Define ‘dichotic listening’
Where P’s are presented 2 different auditory stimuli in different ears through headphones
Define ‘shadowing’
When P’s listen dichotically to two stimuli and have to repeat one of the stimuli out loud whilst they listen
