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Moray's study of auditory attention - Coggle Diagram
Moray's study of auditory attention
AIMS
Based off the findings of Cherry- pps who shadowed one task could not recall any of the content from the rejected task but could distinguish between speech, noises, tone etc. Aim was to provide evidence for these findings
SAMPLE
undergraduate students and research workers (male and female). 12 pps in experiment 2 and two groups of 14 pps in experiment 3
PROCEDURE
EXPERIMENT 1
short list of simple words were spoken 35 times at the rejected/blocked message. at the end of the shadowing task, pps were asked to recall all they could remember of the rejected message and were then given a recognition test of 21 words- 7 from the shadowed, 7 from the rejected and 7 similar but incorrect
RESULTS (mean number of recognised words):
7 words from shadowed - 4.9
7 words from rejected - 1.9
7 similar words - 2.6
EXPERIMENT 2
pps heard two messages of light fiction at once, in all cases the passages began with instructions to listen in their right ear and in two cases they were given a warning that they would receive instructions during the passage to change ears
the instructions that were contained within the passages:
three had affective (pps name was in the instruction) [III, VII, X]
three non-affective (name not mentioned) [I, V, VIII]
four passages with no instructions [II, IV, VI, IX]
PASSAGE INSTRUCTIONS AT START INSTRUCTIONS IN PASSAGE
I listen to your right ear you may stop now
II " none
III " john, you may stop now
IV " none
V " change to your other ear
VI " none
VII " john, change ear
VIII you will be told to change ears change ear
IX listen to your right ear none
X you will be told to change ears john, change ear
RESULTS:
affective instructions non-affective instructions
times presented 39 36
times heard 20 4
EXPERIMENT 3
two groups of 14 were asked to shadow one of two simultaneous dichotic messages. In some of the messages, digits were put into the message towards the end and sometimes the numbers were in both messages, sometimes only in the rejected.
the IV = manipulation of instructions
one group told they would be asked questions about the shadowed message
the other group told they had to remember as many digits as possible
RESULTS:
no difference in mean scores of the digits recalled between the two sets of pps, concluded that this is because numbers are not "important" enough to "break through" the block
APPARATUS
tape recorder with headphones
loudness was matched to the earpieces by asking pps to say when the messages were at equal volume to them
all completed trial-shadowing to practice
loudness was around 60 db above the pps hearing and the words around150 a min
all passages recorded by the same speaker
EVALUATION
METHOD: controlled lab experiment with standardised procedure, however may have been demand characteristics and low ecological validity
DATA: collected quantitative data which allows easy comparison and if the study was to be repeated, the results could be tested
ETHICS: conducted ethically, pps had the tasks explained to them and were not harmed in any way
VALIDITY: high design validity due to lab, pps may have tried to affect the outcome
ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY: low because pps would not be in these conditions on a day to day basis (e.g. all background noise was blocked out)
RELIABILITY: highly reliable due
to lab conditions
SAMPLE: may fail to represent general population as students may have more developed cognitive patterns
ETHNOCENTRISM: we could argue it is a species-specific process, however it only reflects how English-speaking peoples attention processes work
SCIENCE: highly controlled and standardised and fulfils scientific criteria
USEFULNESS: contributed to psychology as an academic discipline as it provides evidence for Cherry's theory
OVERALL PROCEDURE
three lab experiments, all dichotic tasks that required the pps to shadow one message while two messages were played to them, one in each ear
OVERALL CONCLUSIONS
in a situation where a subject directs their attention to the reception of a message from one ear, and rejects a message to the other, almost none of the content in the rejected will break through
a short list of simple words presented as the rejected message shows no trace of being remembered even when presented multiple times
"important" messages (e.g. names) can break through the block
it is difficult to make neutral info (e.g. digits) important enough to break through