Psychology - Cognitive Area Moray (1959) Part 1
This deck covers the key concepts from Moray's (1959) study on selective and divided attention, including the aims, methods, procedures, and findings of the three experiments.
What is selective attention?
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.
Key Terms
What is selective attention?
When people are listen to two or more simultaneous ‘messages’, and are instructed to process and respond to only
one of...
What is divided attention?
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...
What was the aim of Moray's study?
The aim of the study was to test cherry’s dichotic listening findings.
Experiment 1: Amount...
What research methods were used in all three experiments?
All lab experiments, had an IV and DV and high levels of control.
In all tasks the apparatu...
What was the IV and DV for experiment 1?
What was the experimental design used?
IV:
the dichotic listening test
the recognition test
What was the IV and DV for experiment 2?
What was the experimental design used?
IV:
- whether or not instructions were prefixed by the participant’s own name
DV:
- t...
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
What is selective attention? | When people are listen to two or more simultaneous ‘messages’, and are instructed to process and respond to only 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 Participants have to repeat one of these messages aloud as they hear it. The shadowing technique |
What is divided attention? | This is a dual-task technique in which people are asked to attend and respond to both (or all) the messages. Whereas |
What was the aim of Moray's study? | 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 |
What research methods were used in all three experiments? | 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. |
What was the IV and DV for experiment 1? What was the experimental design used? | IV:
DV: Design: repeated measures |
What was the IV and DV for experiment 2? What was the experimental design used? | IV: DV: Design: repeated measures |
What was the IV and DV for experiment 3? What was the experimental design used? | IV: DV: Design: independent measures design. |
What were the samples used in each experiment? | All participants were undergraduates and research workers of both sexes. Experiment 1: not given |
Outline the procedure for experiment 1. | 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. |
Outline the procedure for experiment 2. | 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. |
Outline the procedure for experiment 3. | 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. |
What were the key findings from experiment 1? | 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. |
What were the key findings from experiment 2? | Most participants ignored the instructions that were presented in the passages they were shadowing, and said they thought this was merely 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 |
What were the key findings from experiment 3? | There was no significant difference between the digits recall in each condition. |
What are the main conclusions from Moray's research? | 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 |