Moray

Question 1

What is the background of morays study

Answer 1

Attention is a limited resource. When our attention is focused on certain things, a barrier is put up that stops us from focusing on other things

Cherry came up with the cocktail party effect - when the barrier can be broken only by the sound of your name

Question 2

What is the cocktail party effect

Answer 2

Concept originally suggested by cherry in which we would hear it when our own name is said within a crowded

Question 3

What dichotic listening

Answer 3

When headphones are worn by a participant and a different message is played at each ear

Question 4

What is shadowing

Answer 4

When a participant is told to focus on a passage of text and repeat it out loud as they hear it

Question 5

What is affective instructions

Answer 5

When a person is asked to do something, proceeded by their name being said within a

Question 6

What is non-affective instructions

Answer 6

When a person is asked to do something but their name is not used

Question 7

What was morays aim

Answer 7

To test cherrys findings on the in-attentional barrier more thoroughly

Question 8

What apparatus did moray use

Answer 8

Brunel mark iv stereophonic tape recorder
Headphones

Question 9

What was the sample for morays first example

Answer 9

Undergraduate students
Make and female
From Oxford university

Question 10

What was the procedure for morays first example

Answer 10

Participants had to shadow a piece of prose they could hear in one ear (the attended message)
In the other ear, they could hear a list of simple words repeated 35 times (rejected message)
At the end of the task, participants completed a recognition task of 21 words

Question 11

What were the results of morays first experiment

Answer 11

Participants recognised 4.9 words on average from shadowed passage
Participants recognised 1.9 words on average from rejected passage
Participants recognised 2.6 words on average from neither passage

Question 12

What conclusions were found from morays first example

Answer 12

Participants are much more able to recognise words from shadowed passage. Almost none of the words from the rejected passage are able to break the inattentional barrier

Question 13

What was the aim for morays second example

Answer 13

The experiment wanted to find out if an affective cue, their name, would break the inattentional barrier

Question 14

What was the sample for morays second example

Answer 14

12 undergraduate students
Male & female
From Oxford university

Question 15

What are the independent variables of morays second example

Answer 15

Affective or non affective instructions

Question 16

What is the dependent variable for morays second example

Answer 16

Whether participants were more likely to hear an instruction in a message they’re not paying attention to if it is preceded by their name

Question 17

What is the procedure for morays second example

Answer 17

1. Participants heard 10 passages of light fiction including both affective and non-affective instructions
2. Participants were told to either change ear or to stop. They were told to make as few errors as possible
3. The instructions were at the start and/or end of the passage
4. Passages were read at a steady monotone with a pace of 130 words per minute by a single male voice

Question 18

What were the results of morays second example

Answer 18

Participants heard/followed the instructions preceded by their name 20/39 times
Participants heard/followed the instructions not preceded by their name 4/36 times

Question 19

What were the conclusions of morays second example

Answer 19

Affective messages are able to break the inattentional barrier. This backs up the previous work by cherry

Question 20

What were the reflections from morays second example

Answer 20

Warning - participants were given a warning in passages 8 and 10
Effect - there was a slight increase in how many times the rejected message instruction was heard
Interesting - moray was interested whether pre warning could help break the inattentional barrier

Question 21

What was the aim of morays third example

Answer 21

To find out if prewarning would help neutral material break the inattentional barrier

Question 22

What was the sample of morays third example

Answer 22

28 undergraduates
Male & female
From Oxford university
Split into 2 groups of 14

Question 23

What were the independent variables of morays third example

Answer 23

Warning or no warning

Question 24

What is the dependent variable of morays third example?

Answer 24

How many digits the participants were able to recall from the rejected message

Question 25

Was the procedure of morays third example?

Answer 25

Participants were asked to shadow one message.
The messages sometimes contain digits towards the end
The digits were sometimes only in the shadowed passage, sometimes only in rejected passage, sometimes in both and sometimes there were no digits

Question 26

What were the results of morays third study

Answer 26

There was no significant difference between the groups in how many digits they were able to recall from the rejected passage

Question 27

What was the conclusions from morays third example

Answer 27

Warnings do not help neutral information break the attention barrier. The information must be meaningful in order to do this

Question 28

What ethics were kept by moray

Answer 28

Students had tasks clearly explained prior to participation
No real stress to the task themselves

Question 29

What ethics were broken by moray

Answer 29

Control group not told about digits in experiment 3 (deception)

Question 30

Was it ethnocentric

Answer 30

Yes - only conducted in one culture
But not ethnocentric as attention is universal

Question 31

How was morays study internally reliable

Answer 31

Standardised procedure such as passages used, pace and voice of speaker, recognition task in experiment 1

Question 32

How was morays study externally reliable

Answer 32

Sample size was very small

Question 33

How did morays study show construct validity

Answer 33

Controlled BUT results may have been down to understanding of passages, hearing ability and not attention

Question 34

How did morays study show population validity

Answer 34

All students from a single area and occupation BUT both males and females

Question 35

How did morays study show ecological validity

Answer 35

Realistic to hear multiple conversations at once BUT not isolated, wearing headphones and tested afterwards