Moray (1959) Flashcards
describe the background for morays research
- (1950s) aviation becoming popular, air traffic controllers found it difficult to listen to one pilot and ignore incoming messages from others. likelihood of catastrophes increased.
- (1955) Cherry interested in how people put up an international barrier at a party with multiple conversations going on
‘cocktail party effect’ theorised, this barrier is only broken by the sound of your name
define the cocktail party effect
we would hear a conversation outside our ‘barrier’ only when our name is said within a crowded room
define Dichotic listening
headphones are worn by a participant and a different message is played to each ear
define shadowing
when a participant is told to focus on a piece of text and repeat it out loud as they hear it
define affective instructions
when a person is asked to do something, proceeded by their name being said
define non-affective instructions
when a person is asked to do something but their name is not being used
what is the aim of Morays study ——–
to provide a vigorous empirical test of Cherrys findings
name the apparatus used in all experiments
Brenell mark IV stereophonic tape recorder, headphones
describe the sample used in experiment one
- undergraduate students + research workers
- both genders
- from oxford university
describe the procedure of experiment one
- short list of simple words spoken 35 times as the ‘rejected’ or ‘blocked’ message
- at end of shadowing task, participants asked to remember what they remember of the ‘rejected’ message
- 30 seconds after the activity participants given 21 words (7 from rejected, 7 from blocked and 7 similar words from neither passage) and were tested to see whether or not they recognised the words
describe the procedure of experiment one
- short list of simple words spoken 35 times as the ‘rejected’ or ‘blocked’ message
- at end of shadowing task, participants asked to remember what they remember of the ‘rejected’ message
- 30 seconds after the activity participants given 21 words (7 from rejected, 7 from blocked and 7 similar words from neither passage) and were tested to see whether or not they recognised the words
what was the mean number of recognised words in the shadowed passage
4.9
what was the mean number of recognised words in the rejected passage
1.9
what was the mean number of recognised words in the neither passage
2.6
what quote concluded experiment one
‘in a situation where a subject divides 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 block set up’
describe the aim of experiment 2
to test whether an affective cue (one with strong meaning to the participant) can penetrate the ‘block’ and be attended to
describe the sample used in experiment two
- 12 participants
- students or research workers
describe the IV of experiment two
whether an instruction within a rejected passage…
- was proceeded by the participants name (affective)
- was not preceded by the participants name (non-affective)
describe the DV of experiment two
whether participants were more likely to hear an instruction in a message they weren’t paying attention to if it is proceeded by their name
(operationalised by whether they reported hearing the instruction or actually followed the instruction)
describe the procedure of experiment two
- two passages of light fiction were played into either ear of a participant
- both passages participants heard contained an instruction at the start of the passages and another instruction within the passages
- both passages read in a steady, single male, monotone voice at around 130 words per minute
what experimental design was experiment two and why
repeated measures. all participants experienced the same 10 passages in the same order
what were the participants told the aim of the study was in experiment 2
to make as few mistakes as possible when shadowing the passages of light fiction
when given affective instructions how many times did participants hear the instructions in the rejected passage
20/39 (39 instructions presented in rejected passage)
when given non-affective instructions how many times was the instruction in the rejected message heard
4/36 (36 instructions presented in rejected passage’
what were the conclusions of experiment two
a person will hear instructions if they are presented with their own name. affective messages (like names) can break the ‘inattentional’ barrier
what effect did giving participants a warning to expect instructions to change ears do to the results
a participant was more likely to hear material in the rejected message
describe the aim of experiment three
to test the theory that being given a pre-warning means participants are more likely to hear material in the rejected message
describe the sample of experiment three
- 14 participants
- male and female
- undergraduate students
- oxford university
what was experiment 3 experimental design
independent measures
independent variables of experiment 3
(warning) group told to remember as many of the digits as possible
(no warning) group told they would be asked about the shadowed message at the end of the passage
dependent variable of experiment 3
how many digits the participants were able to recall from the rejected message
describe the procedure of experiment 3
- participants asked to shadow one message
- message sometimes contained digits towards the end
- digits sometimes only in shadowed passage, rejected message, both or in neither (control)
describe the results of experiment 3
there was no difference in the mean score of digits recalled correctly between the two set conditions
describe the conclusions from experiment 3
because the digits were, unlike the persons own name, neutral information, warmings didn’t help to break the inattentional barrier. the information had to be meaningful to break this.
name the 4 overall conclusions from all of the experiments
1- almost none of the verbal content from the rejected message penetrates a block when attending to another message
2- a short list of simple words cannot be remembered even when repeated several times
3- subjectively ‘important’ messages such as names can penetrate the barrier
4- it is difficult to make neutral material (eg digits) important enough to break the inattentional barrier
which ethical guidelines did moray uphold and how
- confidentiality (names not presented on the study)
- protection from harm (questions and tasks not very stressful, for example shadowing a message of simple words)
- informed consent ( all participants aware of objective, experiment one all told to shadow a passage and answer questions at the end)
which ethical guideline did moray break and how
deception (experiment 3, control group not told about instructions)
how could morays study be described as ethnocentric
- only conducted in Oxford, England, middle class area, may not be diverse culturally
(results on inattentional barriers cannot be generalised to other cultures and countries)
in what ways is morays study not ethnocentric
- the ability to concentrate on one demanding task at a time is not cultural but a universal idea of attention and human nature.
in what way does morays study have a high internal reliability
- same equipment used in all three experiments (headphones, Bredell mark IV stereophonic tape recorder)
- same shadowed and rejected message given to participants. same timing, volume, voice in experiments 1 and 2
(consistent across participants)
in what way does morays study have a low external reliability
exp 2 - 12 participants
exp 3 - 14 participants
not large enough to establish consistent effects
in what way did morays study have a high internal validity
- lab experiment (controlled environment)
- same voice, passages, place ( no influence on results)
in what ways did morays study have a low internal validity
hearing ability of participants not checked, understanding of words being spoken not checked (extraneous variables not all accounted for)
argue the population validity for morays study
high- both genders (diverse)
low- only students/undergaduates from the same oxford university ( low diversity )
argue the ecological validity of morays study
-(lab experiment) repeating messages out loud in a controlled environment not similar to real life
- wearing headphones and answering questions after not similar to real life
- listening to multiple conversations at the same time similar to real life (cocktail party effect)
