Moray Flashcards
What is the background to Morays study?
Cherry (1953) was interested in how people put up an inattentional barrier at a party with multiple people having conversations. This is where you only listen to a convo your participating in and not the ones around you
What is the cocktail party effect?
Your attention is pulled away by the sound of your name
What is dichotic listening?
Headphones worn by a participant and a different message is played in each ear
What is shadowing?
You are told to focus on a passage of text and have to read it out loud as you hear it
What is affective instructions?
A person is being asked to do something proceeded by their name being said
What is non affective instructions?
A person is asked to do something but their name isnt used
What is the overall aim of Moray’s study?
To test Cherry’s findings on the inattentional barrier more thoroughly
What is the apparatus used?
Headphones
Tape recorder
Bieneil mark IV sterophonic
In experiment 1 what was the sample used?
Undergraduate students
Male and female
Oxford university
What is the procedure for experiment 1?
- Ppts had to shadow a peice of prose that they could hear in one ear. This is the attended message because ppts were focusing on it
- In the other ear (message they werent paying attention to) a list of words were repeated 35 times. This is the rejected message
- At the end, they completed a recognition task which the had to indicate what they recognised from the list of words (21)
What was the results of experiment 1?
7 words from the shadowed passage= 4.9 mean number of recognised words
7 words from rejected passage= 1.9 mean number of recognised words
7 similar words that didnt appear= 2.6 mean number od recognised words
What is the conclusion of experiment 1?
Ppts were more able to recognise words from the shadowed passage
Almost none of the words from the rejcted passafe are able to break the inattentional barrier
What is the aim of experiment 2?
If an affective cue (names) would break the inattentional barrier
What was the sample in experiment 2?
Male and female
Oxford university
12 undergrad students
What was the IV in experiment 2?
Whether an instruction within a rejected passage was preceeded by the ppts name (affective) or was not proceeded by the ppts name (non affective)
What was the DV in experiment 2?
Whether ppts were more likely to hear an instruction in a messafe they’re not paying attention to if it preceded by their name
Operationalised by whether they reported hearing the instruction or whether they followed the instruction
What was the procedure of experiment 2?
Ppts listened to two different passages at the same time
- Two passages of light fiction
- 6 passages that the ppt heard contained an instruction at the start and then another instruction within them
- Both passages read in a monotone pace, 130 words per miniute (male voice)
What did each ppt do in experiment 2?
-They shadowed 10 passages of light fiction
-They all experienced the same passages in the same order (repeated measures)
-Told the aim was to make as few errors as possible
What were the results of experiment 2?
Instruction preseneted in rejected passage= 39 affective instructions, 36 non affective
Instructions in rejected was heard= 20 affective, 4 non affective
What were conclusions of experiment 2?
Affective messages can break the inattentional barrier. Backs up work by cherry
In which passages were ppts given a warning at the start to expect instructions to change ears?
Passages 8 and 10
What was the effect of being given a warning?
Slight increase in how many times the rejected message was heard
How did experiment 2 lead to experiment 3?
Moray was interested whether pre warning could help break the inattentional barrier
What was the aim of experiment 3?
If the pre warning would help neutral material break the inattentional barrier
What was the sample in experiment 3?
Oxford students
28 undergrads
2 groups of 14
Male and female
What was the design of experiment 3?
Independent measures
What was the design of experiment 2?
Repeated measures design
What was the IV in experiment 3?
Warning- should memorise as manty digits
No warning- Told they would have a test at the end
What was the DV of experiment 3?
How many didgits the ppt could recall from the rejected message
What was the procedure of experiment 3?
- Ppts asked to shadow one message
- The message sometimes contained didgits near the end
- Didgits were sometimes only in the shadowed passage, only in the rejcted passage, in both or none at all
What were the results from experiment 3?
No significant difference between the groups in how many didgits they were able to recall from the rejctd passage
What was the conclusion from experiment 3?
Warnings dont help neutral information to break the inattentional barrier. Info must be meaningful to do this
Overall conclusions from each experiment?
- Almost none of the verbal content from a rejected message penetrates a block when attending to another message
- A short list of simple words cannot be remebered even when repeated several times
- Its difficult to make ‘neutral’ material important enough to break inattentional barrier
What ethics did moray uphold
Informed Consent: Moray emphasized the importance of ensuring that participants were fully informed about the nature of the study, any potential risks, and their right to withdraw at any time without consequence.
Confidentiality: Moray stressed the need to protect participants’ privacy and keep all personal data confidential. This includes ensuring that identifying information is kept secure and used solely for research purposes.
Minimizing Harm: Moray believed that psychological research should not cause any undue distress or harm to participants. He supported the idea that potential risks should be carefully assessed and mitigated where possible.
What ethics did Moray break?
Deception- Control group not told about didgits in experiment 3
Discuss ethnocentrism in Moray
Only conducted in one culture (UK)
Perhaps not ethnocentric as attention is universal
Discuss internal reliability in Moray
Standardised procedure (passages used, pace and voice of speaker, recognition task in experiment 1)
Discuss the external reliability in Moray
Sample sizes very small (unknown), 12 and 28 split into two groups of 14
Discuss the internal validity
Construct: Controlled and standardised in experiment 1 but results may have been down to undertsanding of the passages and hearing ability etc
Discuss the external validity
Popularity validity: All students from a single area and occupation but he used males and females
Ecological: Realistic to hear multiple convos at once but not isolated wearing headphones and tested afterwards
How does moray link to the principels of cognitive area?
Focuses on internal mental process of attention and how this is affected by ppts behaviour. Shows how the mind porcesses auditory info within the inattentional barrier as well as how this can be broken
