Moray (1959)

Question 1

What is the area

Answer 1

Cognitive

Question 2

What is the key theme

Answer 2

Attention

Question 3

What are the two main methods of studying attention

Answer 3

Selective attention

Divided attention

Question 4

What is selective attention

Answer 4

People are presented with two or more simultaneous messages, and are instructed to process and respond to only one of them
A way of doing this is to use shadowing in which one message is fed into the left ear and a different message into the right ear (through headphones)

Question 5

What is divided attention

Answer 5

This is a dual- task technique in which people are asked to attend and respond to both( or all) the messages
Whereas shadowing focuses attention on a particular message, the dual-task method deliberately divided people’s attention

Question 6

Research method

Answer 6

3 lab experiments

Question 7

What was the aim of the study

Answer 7

To test Cherry’s dicho stuck listening findings in relation to:

• the amount of information recognised in the unattended message
• the effect of hearing your own name in the unattended message
• the effect of instructions to identify a specific target in the unattended message

Question 8

Sample

Answer 8

Male and female undergraduates and research workers

Ppt numbers are not given for experiment 1
Experiment 2: 12 ppts
Experiment 3: two groups of 14ppts

Question 9

Controls

Answer 9

• in all tasks, the same tape recorder was, one output going to each earpiece of headphones
• loudness was matched by asking participants to say when two messages seemed equally loud
• before each experiment the ppts were given 4 passages of prose to shadow for practice
• all passages throughout the study were recorded by one male speaker at a rate of 139wpm

Question 10

Experiment 1 design

Answer 10

Repeated measures design

Question 11

Independent variables of experiment 1

Answer 11

• the shadowed message
• the unattended message
• control- the recognition test

Question 12

What was the dependent variable

Answer 12

The number of words recognised correctly in the rejected message

Question 13

Conclusions

Answer 13

In a situation where a ppt 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 attention barrier
- a short list of simple words presented as the rejected message shows no trace of being called even when presented many times