Moray (1959)

Question 1

What is selective attention?

Answer 1

When people are listen to two or more simultaneous ‘messages’, and are instructed to process and respond to only
one of them.

The most popular 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).

Participants have to repeat one of these messages aloud as they hear it.

The shadowing technique
is a form of dichotic listening which was first used by Cherry (1953) when he studied the cocktail party phenomenon.

Question 2

What is divided attention?

Answer 2

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 divides people’s attention.

Question 3

What was the aim of Moray’s study?

Answer 3

The aim of the study was to test cherry’s dichotic listening findings.

Experiment 1: Amount of information recognised in rejected message.

Experiment 2: The effects of hearing one’s name in the unattended message.

Experiment 3: The effects of instructions to identify specific targets in rejected message

Question 4

What research methods were used in all three experiments.

Answer 4

All lab experiments, had an IV and DV and high levels of control.

In all tasks the apparatus used was a Brenell Mark IV stereophonic tape recorder modified with two amplifiers to give two independent outputs, they were matched on loudness.

Question 5

What was the IV and DV for experiment 1?

What was the experimental design used?

Answer 5

IV:

• the dichotic listening test
• the recognition test

DV:
- the number of words recognised correctly in the rejected message

Design: repeated measures

Question 6

What was the IV and DV for experiment 2?

What was the experimental design used?

Answer 6

IV:
- whether or not instructions were prefixed by the participant’s own name

DV:
- the number of effective instructions

Design: repeated measures

Question 7

What was the IV and DV for experiment 3?

What was the experimental design used?

Answer 7

IV:
- whether digits were inserted into both messages or only one.
- whether participants had to answer questions about the shadowed message at the end of each passage or whether participants had to
merely remember all the numbers they could.

DV:
- the number of digits correctly reported

Design: independent measures design.

Question 8

What were the samples used in each experiment?

Answer 8

All participants were undergraduates and research workers of both sexes.

Experiment 1: not given
Experiment 2: 12 participants
Experiment 3: 14 particpants

Question 9

Outline the procedure for experiment 1.

Answer 9

A list of words was spoken 25 times as the ‘rejected’ or ‘blocked’ message.

At the end of the shadowing task participants were asked to recall all they could remember from the rejected message.

After the completion of the shadow tasks, participants were given a recognition test of 21 words, 7 in the shadowed passage, 7 in the rejected message and the last 7 were in neither.

Question 10

Outline the procedure for experiment 2.

Answer 10

Participants shadowed ten short passages of light fiction.

Rejected messages were played in the other ear which were not attended to, Moray wanted to find out of these messages would be heard if it included their name.

Question 11

Outline the procedure for experiment 3.

Answer 11

Digits were inserted to each passage in a random way.

First group were given no instruction.

Second group told they would be asked questions on rejected.

Question 12

What were the key findings from experiment 1?

Answer 12

The mean words recognised in the showed message was 4.9 out of 7, while in the rejected message it was 1.9 out of 7.

Question 13

What were the key findings from experiment 2?

Answer 13

Most participants ignored the instructions that were presented in the passages they were shadowing, and said they thought this was merely
an attempt to distract them.

On only 4 out of the 20 occasions in which the ‘names’ instructions were heard did the participants actually make a change to the other
message.

Question 14

What were the key findings from experiment 3?

Answer 14

There was no significant different between the digits recall in each condition.

Question 15

What are the main conclusions from research by Moray?

Answer 15

When a participant directs their attention to a message in one ear, almost none of the rejected message is able to penetrate the block.

Subjectively ‘important’ messages, such as a person’s own name, can penetrate the block: thus a person will hear instructions if they are
presented with their own name as part of the rejected message.

Question 16

Evaluate the research method used in research by Moray.

Answer 16

Moray used a controlled lab experiment and these fulfilled scientific criteria.
A standardised produce was used to control extraneous variables.

However it was possible that participants were aware of the study and this may have affected participants responding to demand characteristics.

Problems were ecological validity of a lab experiment.

Question 17

Evaluate the data collected in Moray’ study.

Answer 17

This study collected and reported quantitative data, for example, the number of words from a list in an unattended message that P’s could recall.

This type of data allows easy comparison between conditions and for the result to b easily summarised.

The study could be repeated to establish test-reset reliability.

Question 18

What were the ethical issues in Moray’s study?

Answer 18

The study was conducted ethically as tasks were clearly explained to participants before the study.

Question 19

Discuss the extent to which research by Moray can be seen as valid.

Answer 19

High design validity due to lab experiment and procedure and apparatus were standardised.

However, participants knew they were in a study and may have tried to effect the outcome of the study, demand characteristics.

Question 20

Discuss the extent to which research by Moray can be seen as ecologically valid.

Answer 20

Low ecological validity as uses headphones for dicotic messenger that blocks out background noise.

Participants would not experience these conditions in real life.

Question 21

Discuss the extent to which research by Moray can be seen as reliable.

Answer 21

Moray uses highly controlled lab experiment and a standardised procedure, therefore it is replicable. Test-retest reliably could be established,

Question 22

Evaluate the sample used in Moray’s research.

Answer 22

The sample was made up of students and research workers.

As advantage of such a sample is it can be collected relatively quickly and cheaply for a recherche carrying out research at a university.

However, the participants may have been pre selected due to their high level of cognitive ability.
They do not represent the general population as they are all part of higher education and some may have already known about the topic they were questioned on.

Question 23

What was extent was research by Moray ethnocentric?

Answer 23

Since cognitive processes such as selective attention depend upon the physiognomy of out brain, we could argue that studies such as Moray’s are not ethnocentric since they are investigating a species specific behaviour.

However, it is possible that findings are only representative of English speaking westerners, who have brains that have been shaped for language.

Question 24

To what extent can research by Moray support psychology as a science.

Answer 24

Fulfilled scientific criteria and used a lab experiment.

Question 25

To what extent can research by Moray be seen as useful.

Answer 25

It contributes to psychology as an academic discipline as it provided empirical evidence for Cherry’s cocktail party phenomenon..

Question 26

How does research by Moray fit into the cognitive area?

Answer 26

It investigates cognitive process of attention.

Specifically it aimed to investigate selective attention by trying to find out whether ‘unattended’ material could break though the attention barrier that is set up when a person focuses their listening on a specific task.

Question 27

How does research by Moray link to the key theme?

Answer 27

The key theme is attention.
Morays study provides robust empirical evidence into auditory selective attention.

The study also provide evidence that information that is either neutral or not important does not penetrate the block.