Moray

Question 1

What is the background to the Moray study?

Answer 1

Cherry (1953) used the method of ‘shadowing’ to test divided attention. Found that in binaural presentation it was difficult to separate the messages. In the dichotic Ps were almost entirely unaware of the content in the rejected message.

Question 2

What was the aim of Moray’s study?

Answer 2

Test Cherry’s dichotic listening findings in relation to the amount of info recognised in the rejected message, the effect of hearing ones name in the unattended message and the affect of instructions.

Question 3

What is the method Moray used?

Answer 3

Three lab experiments.

Question 4

What is the sample in Moray’s study?

Answer 4

male and female undergraduate students and researchers. Study 2- 12ps, study 3- Had two groups of 14

Question 5

What design was used in all three studies of Moray’s study?

Answer 5

Study 1-RMD
Study 2- RMD
Study 3-IMD

Question 6

What was the procedure in experiment 1 of Moray’s study?

Answer 6

A short list of words was presented 35 times (repeated) to one ear of the ps while he or she shadowed a prose message presented to the other ear. After 30 seconds ps were asked to recall words in the non-attended message.

Question 7

What was the procedure in experiment 2 of Moray’s study?

Answer 7

Ps were asked to shadow ten short passages of fiction making as few mistakes as possible. Instructions such as ‘listen to your right ear’ etc were given at the start of the passages. In three of the passages instructions were prefaced with the ps name.

Question 8

What was the procedure in experiment 3 of Moray’s study?

Answer 8

Two groups of 14 ps shadowed one or two simultaneous dichotic listening messages. In some towards the end of the message digits were included. One group of ps were told they would be asked about the content of the message, the other group was asked to remember as many digits as they could.

Question 9

Results of experiment 1 in Moray’s study.

Answer 9

When the short list of simple words was presented as the non-attended message there was no trace of the words being remembered even when being presented many times.
4.9/7 words from shadowed
1.9/7 words from rejected

Question 10

Results of experiment 2 in Moray’s study.

Answer 10

When instructions were given in the non-attended message ps heard 20/39 when this was preceded by their name but 4/36 when not preceded by the name.

Question 11

Results of experiment 3 in Moray’s study.

Answer 11

There was no significant difference in the number of digits recalled in either condition.

Question 12

What conclusions did Moray give?

Answer 12

Moray observes that an ‘identification paradox’ exits: although the concept of the rejected message is not attended to and is blocked out from conscious perception this block does not prevent a response to one’s own name.

Question 13

From the study by Moray into dichotic listening, explain what a shadowing task is (2)

Answer 13

The shadowing task is when one message is fed into one ear and a different message into the other messages are repeated as they are heard. For example in expt 1 ps heard a short list of simple words repeated 35 times in the unattended ear whilst they shadowed a prose (repeated) in the attended ear.

Question 14

Outline one control that was used in the study into dichotic listening by Moray

Answer 14

One control was the loudness spoken to ps. the ps had the loudness of the tape individually matched to ensure differences in volume and the messages recorded were spoken at a constant speed and without expression. This increased the ecological validity making the results more reliable.

Question 15

Outline 2 conclusions that can be drawn from the study into dichotic listening by Moray

Answer 15

1) When the ps direct directs attention to the message in one ear, rejecting the message in the other ear, almost all verbal content of the rejected message is blocked.
2) This rejection is apparent even when the message is repeated many times there is no trace of a short list of simple words presented many times being remembered.

Question 16

Suggest one improvement that could be made to the study into dichotic listening by Moray.

Answer 16

Sample: The sample was undergraduates or researchers so all had an unusually good level of cognitive ability meaning the results can’t be generalised to the wider population. Therefore to improve Moray could could use a range of ps from different backgrounds to get more reliable results.

Question 17

From Moray’s study into auditory attention: Describe how dichotic listening task was used in any one of the experiments in this study.

Answer 17

Dichotic listening- Is with a different message in each ear. For example in study 1 ps heard a short list of simple words repeated 35 times in the unattended ear whilst they shadowed a prose message in the attended ear. The word list was faded in after shadowing vegan and faded out as the attended message ended.

Question 18

What are the key assumptions of the cognitive area?

Answer 18

The approach explains behaviour in terms of how the mind processes information:
The underlying idea is that the mind works like a computer-information is input, stores and retrieved.
It is primarily concerned with investigating internal mental processes like thinking, problem solving and memory.
The cognitive approach tends to use the scientific method, which enables the researchers to establish cause and effect

Question 19

What is the key theme for Moray’s study?

Answer 19

Attention

Question 20

How does Moray link to the area?

Answer 20

[A] Behaviour is a result of internal mental processes.
[L] Unable to attenbd to too many things at once so only certain factors break through the attentional barrier i.e. own name
[E] Ps are much more liekly to hear an instruction in the rejecyted message if their name was said before it.
[A] The mind works like a computer
[L] Input (hearing both passeges) Storage (usually only the shadowed message. Output (details of the shadowed message, little of the rejected message if it’s important enough).
[E] Ps in exp 1 could remember far more words from the shadowed passage than the rejected passage.

Question 21

How does Moray link to the key theme?

Answer 21

-We fail to attenbd to some aspects of the perceptual environment that we might expect people to notice because they are pertinent or unusual e.g. repeated words or numbers.
- For example in Moray’s first experiemnt ps shadowing a message in one ear were unable to recall any of a wordlist simultaneously presnted to their unattended ear. This study demostrates that generally words and numbers are not enough to break the inattentional barrier.
- Secondly, we do however attend to certain subjective information especially if it had an affective element i.e our name. In Moray’s second experiment ps were given both affective and non-affective instructions within the passages tehy were presented. the difference between the affective and non-affective instructions heard by the ps was highly significnat (20vs4)
-Therefore attention is selctive- once we focus on a task we become unaware of other events in our environment.

Question 22

Evalaute the ecological validity of Moray’s study

Answer 22

:) hearing your own name is a relaistic experience.
:) Having to concentrate on one thing whilst ignoringothers is a natural experience e.g. listening to an announcement at a busy train station or speaking on the phone on the phone on a busy street.
:( Not very relaistic to listen dichotic headphones and repeat what you hear.

Question 23

What were some controls used in Moray’s study?

Answer 23

same male, monotonous voice
same words per minute
same levelling volume in headphones
same equipment used.

Question 24

Evaluate the ethnocentrism of Moray’s study

Answer 24

:( Other research found taht in dichotic lsitening tasks, monolingual English and bilingual English-chinese speakers repsonded differently with monolingual having a right-ear advantage. Additional langauge may alter the way English speakers use their brains in these tasks.
:( However, there seem to be some advantages for bilinguals (Swedish and Finnish) have been found to perform bttewr in dichotic listening taksks
:) Its assumed that basic cognitive processes are universal.

Question 25

Outline two of the aims of the study by moray into auditory attention

Answer 25

To see if a message with a trong en0ough meaning to the ps (an affective cue) would make the participant pay attention to the rejected message.
To see if other material (for example digits) could break the inattentional barrier.

Question 26

Outline one control used in Moray’s study

Answer 26

Same volume (60dB), same voice (male monotonous voice), smae speed (150 words per minute)

Question 27

How is the data obtained by Moray reliable and unreliable?

Answer 27

:) Standardistaion enabled replication such as due to the use of headphones
:( however some differences in the ps experiences, e.g some only heard and responded to instruction to change ears, so the passage intended to be the shadowed message became the rejected message and one person also spontaneously reverted to shadowing the original ear without noticing

Question 28

Evalaute a strength and a wekaness of the experiemntal method used in Moray’s study

Answer 28

:) high level of control- e.g. same volume, same male monotonous voice and same speed (150 words per minute) were used, this means that internal valifity is high.
:( Ecological validity is low, it is not very relaistic to listen to dichotic headphones (with two differnt messages played simultaneously!) and repeate what you hear, therefore we cannot generlaise the results to rela life.