Moray's Study Flashcards
Which key theme does Moray’s study link to?
Attention
What is the background for Moray’s 1950s study on attention?
In the early 1950s there were problems faced by air traffic controllers
At the time the controllers received messages from many different pilots over one loudspeaker in the control room, hearing the intermixed voices of many pilots over ONE loudspeaker the controllers task was very difficult (had man near collisions).
This became known as the ‘cocktail party effect’
Who came up with the ‘cocktail party effect’?
Colin Cherry
What is the cocktail party effect?
It suggests whilst in a place full of information (like a party) we can automatically pay attention if someone says our name - even if we weren’t listening to them before.
What is dichotic listening?
Involving the simultaneous stimulation of both the left and right ear by using different sounds
What is shadowing?
When participants listen to 2 dichotic stimuli (spoken) and are instructed to listen to one stimuli and repeat it aloud (verbally)
Whats an affective instruction?
A command which contains the participants name
What were the overall aims of the study?
- To rigorously test Cherry’s findings on attention
- Investigate what types of messages would penetrate an attentional barrier/’block’ and be paid attention to by the participants
What apparatus/equipment is necessary for a dichotic listening task?
- Rejected and Shadowed passages
- Benrell mark VI tape recorder with twin outputs
- Headphones
- Affective cue
- List of words
How many experiments did Moray carry out?
3
What was the sample used in experiment 1 of Moray’s study?
Undergraduate students and research workers of both genders at Oxford University
What is the procedure for experiment 1 in Moray’s study?
- Participants had to shadow a piece of prose they could hear in on ear (attended message)
- In the other ear was a list of simple words which was repeated 35 times (rejected message)
- At the end of the experiment they completed a word recognition task where there were 7 words from the shadowed message, 7 words from rejected message and 7 from neither message
- The participant then chose the words which they recognised
What did the participants do at the end of the experiment?
A word recognition task called list 21
What were the results for experiment 1?
The mean words recognised;
- 4.9 SHADOWED
- 1.9 REJECTED
- 2.6 NEITHER
What was the mean number or words recognised from the shadowed passage in experiment 1?
- 4.9
What are the conclusions of experiment 1 in Moray’s Study?
Participants are much more able to recognise words from shadowed passages
- Almost no words from the rejected message were able to break the attentional barrer/block
What was the aim of the experiment 2 in Moray’s study?
To tests whether an affective cue would penetrate the ‘block’ and be paid attention to
What sample was used in experiment 2 of Moray’s Study?
12 participants
Undergraduate students/research workers from Oxford University
Both genders
What was the independent variable for experiment 2?
- Whether an instruction within a rejected message was preceded by the participants name (affective cue) or not (non-affective cue)
What is the dependent variable for experiment 2?
- Whether participants were more likely to hear an instruction in a message they’re not paying attention to if it is preceded by their name
- This was operationalised by whether they reported hearing the instruction or whether they actually followed the instruction.
How was the dependent variable for experiment 2 operationalised?
By whether they reported HEARING the instruction of whether they actually FOLLOWED the instruction
What is the procedure for experiment 2 of Moray’s study?
- Participants were presented with a dichotic listening task with two passages of light fiction in either ear
- Both passages that the participant heard contained an instruction at the start and then another instruction within them
- Both passages were read in a steady monotone voice at a pace of about 130 words per minute by a single male voice
- They each shadowed 10 passages of light fiction (experiencing the same ten passages in the same order- repeated measures design
- They were told the aim was for them to make as few errors as possible when shadowing the passages
Which of the ten passages contained an affective instruction?
Passage 3, 7 and 10
Which of the ten passages contained a non-affective instruction?
Passage 1, 5 and 8
