Cognitive Psychology- Moray and Simons and Chabris

Question 1

What is selective attention

Answer 1

Presented with 2 or more simultaneous messages and are instructured to process and respond to one of them

Question 2

What is a shadowing message

Answer 2

A message that is attended to and repeated out loud

Question 3

What is a rejected message

Answer 3

The message sent to the ear that is not being shadowed so is left unattended

Question 4

What is dichotic listening

Answer 4

Presenting participants with 2 different auditory stimuli simultaneously
Different stimuli are directed into different ears over headphones. Instructed to shadow one and reject another

Question 5

What is the background of Moray

Answer 5

Selective attention is when people are presented with two or more simultaneous ‘messages’, and process or attend to only one of them by tuning out the others. This is measured using dichotic listening tasks. Broadbent investigated the aviation industry, raising awareness of the importance of air traffic controllers to be able to selectively attend to important messages whilst rejecting others. Cherry was interested in conducting experiments on this topic. He created dichotic listening tasks, asking participants to listen to two different messages, one in each ear, and shadow one of them, thus setting up a block to the rejected message. Cherry found that very little could be remembered from the unattended message. Moray was keen to replicate Cherry’s work and extend knowledge of selective attention and dichotic listening

Question 6

What is the aim of Morays study

Answer 6

To test Cherrys dichotic listening findings in relation to the amount of information recognised in the rejected message
The effect of hearing ones name in an unattended message
The effect of instructions to identify a specific target in the rejected message

Question 7

What is the research method of Morays study

Answer 7

Consisted of 3 experiments
All lab based had high controls over the IV and DV so all were lab experimens

Question 8

What were the materials used in Morays study

Answer 8

A Brenall Mark IV stereophonic tape recorder modified with 2 amplifiers

Question 9

What was the sample in experiment 1 for Morays study

Answer 9

Male and female research workers and undergraduate

Question 10

What was the research method in experiment 1 for Morays study

Answer 10

Repeated measures design
IV- Dichotic listening task and recognition test
DV- Number of words recognised correctly in the rejected message

Question 11

What was the procedure for experiment 1 of Morays study

Answer 11

Particpants were given 4 passages of prose to shadow for practice. All passages recorded by one male speaker
A short list of spoken words was spoken 35 times as the rejected message. After the participants were asked to recall all the could remeber off of the rejected message
30 seconds after the completion of the shadowing task paritipcnats were given a recognition test of 21 words Seven from the shadowed Seven from the rejected and seven words similar but not present in the passage which acted as a control

Question 12

What were the results for Morays study in experiment 1

Answer 12

Significantly more words were recalled in the shadowed message than the rejected message
7 words in shadowed- 4.9/7
7 words in rejected- 1.9/7
7 words in control - 2.6/7

Question 13

What was the conclusion of Moray

Answer 13

In a situation where a subject directs his attention to the reception of a message from one ear and rejects the message from the other ear almost none of the content of the rejected message is able to penetrate the block set up

Question 14

What was the sample in Morays study for experiment 2

Answer 14

Participants were male and female undergraduate and resarch workers
12

Question 15

What was the research method in Morays study for experiment 2

Answer 15

A repeated measures design was used
IV- Whether or not instructions were prefixed by the participants own name
DV- Number of affective instructions

Question 16

What were the results of experiment 2 in Morays study

Answer 16

In he affective condition 20 out of 36 messages were heard while in the non affective condition 4 out of 36 messages were heard

Question 17

What was the purpose of experiment 3

Answer 17

A third experiment was conducted to see if the instructions given at the start to listen out for digits woudl make a difference and penetrate the block of the rejected message . In order to test the validity of experiment 2 and assess with the affective cue of a name is what really penetrates the block

Question 18

What was the sample used in experiment 3

Answer 18

14 Males and females of research workers and undergraduates

Question 19

What was the research method used in experiment 3

Answer 19

Independent measures design

Question 20

What was the procedure of Morays study experiment 3

Answer 20

To see if the instructions given at the start to listen out for digits would make a difference and break the block some were told to listen for digits and others were not

Question 21

What were the results of experiment 3

Answer 21

No significant difference was shown in the mean scores of digits recalled between the 2 set conditions

Question 22

What were the overrall conclusions of Morays study

Answer 22

In a situation where a participant directs his attention to the reception of a message from one ear and rejects a message from the other ear almost none of the verbal content of the rejected message is able to penetrate the block set up
A short list of simple words presented as the rejected message show no trace of being remembered even when being presented many times
While perhaps not impossible it is very difficult to make “neutral” material important enough to break through the block set up in dichotic shadowing

Question 23

Outline how the study by Moray links to the cognitive area [4]

Answer 23

The cognitive approach assumes the mind works like a computer; we input information from our environment, process it using internal mental processes like schemas and then output a behaviour. Moray investigated selective attention in undergraduate students and research workers asking them to listen to 2 simultaneous messages, recalling information from one. Moray found in the majority of experiments that very little could be remembered from the rejected message. This links to the cognitive area as the information inputted from the rejected message is not being processed and attended to in the mind, therefore, the information is not outputted in memory as the students could not remember the information.

Question 24

Explain how Moray’s study links to the key theme of attention [4]

Answer 24

Moray measured selective auditory attention in male and female undergraduate students and research workers by asking them to do a series of dichotic listening tasks. The participants had to shadow one message (such as a piece of light fiction) and reject another (a list of words). Moray used a number of cues e.g. their name to see how much information, if any, could be remembered from the rejected message and to see if their attention could be drawn to the rejected message. Moray found in the majority of experiments that very little could be remembered from the rejected message, however, the only thing that could break the block in the rejected message is an affective cue such as someone’s name. This links to the key theme of attention as it demonstrates that in a situation where lots of messages are being heard, we attend to the one we are focussing on and can remember very little from ones we are not attending to.

Question 25

Describe how a dichotic listening task was used in any one of the experiments in this study (3)

Answer 25

A dichotic listening task was used in experiment 2 as a shadowing task was used the participants heard two passages of light fiction at once, one presented to each ear simultaneously. Here the participants had to shadow ten passages of light fiction and be as accurate as possible with the shadowed information by following the instructions they could hear.

Question 26

What were the weaknesses of research method used in Moray

Answer 26

Low ecological validity as completing a shadowing task is not a familiar task to all participants and in experiment 2 they had to listen to 10 trials so we cannot generalise the results regarding dichotic listening in the real word

Question 27

What were the strength of research method used in Moray

Answer 27

High controls over extraneous variables like the loudness of each ear was matched and always a male speaker which increases the internal validity as cause and effect can be established

Question 28

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the sample in Morays study

Answer 28

+ Both males and females used
+ Mix of students and research workers
- Only english speakers- cant generalise to other languages
- Students and research workers may have more experience with with experimental procedures increasing the risk of DC
Coudl have higher cognitive abilities as well

Question 29

What is ethical about Moray

Answer 29

Very ethical as the students and research workers knew they were taking part in a study and completed practice trials so they knew what to expect

Question 30

What is unethical about Moray

Answer 30

Deception- in experiment 2 participants were told the aim was to make as few errors as possible in the shadowing task but the real aim was to test if an affective cue would penetrate the block

Question 31

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the type of data collected in Moray

Answer 31

+ Statistical analysis allows for comparisons to be made between conditions like affective and non affective conditions
+ More scientific and objective
- Lacks internal validity and usefulness as ps were not asked why they performed as they did so we have a lack of insight into behaviour

Question 32

What are the strengths and weaknesses of validity in Morays study

Answer 32

+ High internal- high controls so C+E can be established
Quant data- More objective and less risk of researcher bias
- High risk of order effect in exp 2 as here are 10 trials as ps may be bored or fatigued
Dichotic listening and shadowing tasks are not everyday life tasks

Question 33

What are the strengths and weaknesses of reliability

Answer 33

High internal reliability- standardised procedure with high controls like it always being a male speaker and 4 practice trials
High external relaibilty due to quant data being collected
Not all procedures were standardised like in exp 2 and 3 ps changed ears when they were mean to shadow that ear

Question 34

How is the study ethnocentric

Answer 34

The findings of the study only reflect how English speaking westerners attentional processes work and people whose brains have been shaped from a different language or culture may behave differntly

Question 35

How is Moray useful

Answer 35

Academic knowledge of attention and dichotic listening is increased so we know about cues that can or cant break the block
Can make effective practical applications such as the importance of road saftety and not dividing attention while driving like with mobile phones

Question 36

How is Moray limited in usefulness

Answer 36

Lab experiment so low ev so can geenralise to real life
Small and limited sample

Question 37

How does Moray link to determinism

Answer 37

Moray suggests that factors beyond our concious control may dictate our perceptions. For example the shadowed tasks determine our ability to recall information presented in the rejected message

Question 38

How does Moray link to the free will debate

Answer 38

However we can conciously focus our attention if nessacary this is evidence as some participants were abl to recall information presented in the rejected message or change ear when instructed to do so

Question 39

What is the background of Simons and Chabris

Answer 39

Moray had previously researched into auditory attention. Simons and Chabris was interested in building on this knowledge and investigating visual attention particularly inattentional blindness. This is when attention is diverted observers often fail to perceive an unexpected object. Previous research had already been conducted in this field. Mack and Rock investigated into computer based displays where participants were given a task to do and then presented with an unexpected object such as a smiley face. They found that observers failed to see it. However this method was seen as unrepresentative of how visual attention works in real life. Neisser investigated video based displays where participants were asked to watch basketball players passing a ball and count the amount of passes during which a woman with an umbrella will walk across the screen. The majority of participants failed to see the woman. However the research was criticized for using a poor quality video. Both of these studies provided evidence for inattentional blindness. Yet Simons and Chabris were eager to enhance the work of both researchers making the task of inattention blindness more representative to real life

Question 40

What were the 3 aims of Simons and Chabris

Answer 40

1) Aimed to find out whether events that are particularly unusual are more likely to be detected
2) The level of difficulty on the focused task was also tested- would a more difficult task increase the rate of inattentional blindness?
3) Aimed to investigate the effects of the unusual superimposition and “transparency” of characters in the video used by Neisser - would a more realistic video given similar or different findings?

Question 41

What was the research method used in Simons and Chabris

Answer 41

A laboratory experiment using an independent measures design

Question 42

What were the 4 independent variables used in Simons and Chabris

Answer 42

The Transparent/Umbrella woman condition
The Transparent/Gorilla condition
The Opaque/ Umbrella woman condition
The Opaque/ Gorilla condition

Question 43

What were the 4 task conditions used in Simons and Chabris

Answer 43

White/Easy
White/Hard
Black/Easy
Black/Hard

Question 44

What was the dependent variable

Answer 44

The number of participants in each of the 16 conditions who noticed the unexpected event

Question 45

What was the control research method in Simons and Chabris

Answer 45

A controlled observation was conducted in which participants watched a different video and had to attend to the White team and engage in the Easy monitoring task

Question 46

What was the procedure of Simons and Chabris

Answer 46

4 video tapes were created recording the same actors on the same day in the same location
Each video lasted 75 seconds
Each video showed 2 teams made up of 3 players one team wearing white shirts and another wearing black shirts each passing a standard basketball between them using aerial passes and bounced passes and consistently moved around and dribbled the ball
Passed the ball in a standard order- 1 to 2 and 2 to 3
Between 44-48 seconds in the video the unexpected event occurred

Question 47

Describe the umbrella woman condition

Answer 47

A tall woman holding an open umbrella crossing the scene from left to right

Question 48

Describe the gorilla condition

Answer 48

A shorter woman in a gorilla costume crossing the scene from left to right. Lasted for 5 seconds

Question 49

What were the 2 video conditions

Answer 49

Transparent- Black team, White team and unexpected event filmed separately and then superimposed onto each other so each was transparent
Opaque- To avoid collisions and make the events look natural all actors were recorded at the same time

Question 50

What was the sample used in Simons and Chabris

Answer 50

228 participants in total mostly being undergraduate students based at Harvard University
Data from 36 was discarded so findings were based on 192 participants

Question 51

Give features of the procedure for Simons and Chabris

Answer 51

Participants were always tested individually- Informed that the task would involve them watching a clip of basketball players and that they should pay attention to the white or black team and count the number of passes between the team they were focused on

Question 52

What were the 2 types of task the participants were given

Answer 52

“Easy”- Participants had to keep a mental note of all the passes the team had made
“Hard”- Participants had to keep a separate mental note of the number of aerial passes and bounced passes made

Question 53

Procedure (2)

Answer 53

After viewing the tape, Participants were asked to immediately record the number of passes on paper then asked surprise questions
“While you were counting did you notice anything unusual about the video”
“Did you notice anything other than the 6 players”
“Did you see a gorilla/ woman in umbrella walking across the screen”
If they said yes they were asked to provide details
If they mentioned the unexpected event at any point the rest of the questions weren’t asked