Moray Flashcards
What is the cocktail party effect?
The ability to focus on one conversation while ignoring others in a noisy environment.
Who first described the cocktail party effect?
Cherry (1953).
What was Moray’s aim?
To investigate selective attention in auditory information and test Cherry’s findings.
What research method did Moray use?
Laboratory experiment.
What technique was used to test attention?
Dichotic listening task – different messages played in each ear.
What were participants asked to do?
Shadow (repeat aloud) one message while ignoring the other.
What experimental design was used?
Repeated measures design – the same participants took part in all conditions.
Who were the participants?
Undergraduate students and research workers.
What was the aim of Experiment 1?
To test how much of the unattended message was remembered.
What were the results of Experiment 1?
Shadowed message: 8.9 words remembered.
Rejected message: Only 4.9 words remembered.
Control words (not heard before): 7 words remembered.
What was concluded from Experiment 1?
Information from the unattended message is not deeply processed.
What was the aim of Experiment 2?
To test if hearing one’s own name in the unattended message would grab attention.
What were the results of Experiment 2?
Name present: 20 out of 39 trials noticed it (51%).
No name present: Only 4 out of 39 noticed it (13%).
What was concluded from Experiment 2?
Some personally relevant information (like a name) can break through attention filters.
What was the aim of Experiment 3?
To test if meaningful messages presented across both ears would be noticed.
What were the results of Experiment 3?
Participants could not follow meaningful messages from one ear to the other.
What was concluded from Experiment 3?
Information from the unattended ear is blocked before it is processed for meaning.
What was the overall conclusion of Moray’s study?
Unattended messages are not processed for meaning, except for personally relevant information (e.g., a person’s name).
Why is Moray’s study considered highly controlled?
The laboratory setting minimized extraneous variables, ensuring that attention was being tested accurately.
Why is Moray’s study considered replicable?
The use of standardized procedures (e.g., same recordings, instructions, and tasks) allows easy replication for reliability testing.
How did Moray’s study provide objective results?
It collected quantitative data (e.g., number of words recalled), making the results measurable and unbiased.
Why does Moray’s study have low ecological validity?
The dichotic listening task is artificial and doesn’t reflect real-life selective attention (e.g., conversations in social settings).
How does sample bias affect the study?
The study only used university students and research workers, limiting its generalizability to other populations.
Why does Moray’s study lack qualitative mean?
It doesn’t explain why some information (like a person’s name) breaks through attention filters—it only measures what was noticed.
What was the sample size in Experiment 2 of Moray’s (1959) study?
12
What was the sample size in Experiment 3 of Moray’s (1959) study?
Two groups of 14 participants each, totaling 28 participants.
In which experiment of Moray’s (1959) study is the sample size unspecified?
Experiment 1.
