SEARCH
You are in browse mode. You must login to use MEMORY

   Log in to start

level: Moray (C)

Questions and Answers List

level questions: Moray (C)

QuestionAnswer
What is selective attention- When people listen to two or more simultaneous ‘messages’ - Instructed to process + respond to only one of them
The shadowing technique- 1 message is fed into the left ear, different message into the right ear (through headphones) - Participants have to repeat one of these messages aloud as they hear it - Is a form of dichotic listening
What is divided attention- Dual-task technique, people asked to focus on both (or all) the messages - Deliberately divides people’s attention
Aims- To see if there’s an inattentional barrier - To see if affective cue’s break that inattentional barrier - To see if neutral cues break the inattentional barrier - To test cherry’s dichotic listening findings
Background- Cherry's 'cocktail party effect' through dichotic listening tasks - They realised however deep in conversation you might be at a cocktail party, if someone mentions your name, this would draw your attention
The experiments- Experiment 1 - Experiment 2 - Experiment 3
Samples used in each experiment- Undergraduates and research workers of both genders - Opportunity sample - Experiment 1: not given - Experiment 2: 12 participants - Experiment 3: 14 particpants
What research method were used in all three experiments- All lab experiments, had an IV and DV and high levels of control
Experiment 1 IV- The dichotic listening test - The recognition test
Experiment 1 DV- No. of words recognised correctly in the rejected message
Experiment 1 experimental design- Repeated measures
Experiment 2 IV- Whether or not instructions were prefixed by the participant’s own name
Experiment 2 DV- No. of effective instructions
Experiment 2 experimental design- Repeated measures
Experiment 3 IV- Whether digits were inserted into both messages or only one - Whether ppts had to answer questions about the shadowed message at the end of each passage - Whether ppts had to merely remember all the numbers they could
Experiment 3 DV- No. of digits correctly reported
Experiment 3 experimental design- Independent measures design
Strength of using repeated measures design- No individual differences, results more reliable as you are able to get more consistent results
Weakness of using repeated measures design- Order effects, interferes with validity - As ppt’s may get better at remembering information because of practice or worse because of fatigue
Strength of using independent measures design- No order effects because ppt’s only take part in one condition - Increases validity, ppt’s can not get better through practice or worse through fatigue
Weakness of using independent measures design- Individual differences, interfere with validity as you are unsure that the IV is definitely causing the DV
What were the controls of the apparatus- 60 decibels above hearing threshold - Male speaker only - Made sure each ppt was hearing the same message
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 ppts asked to recall all they could remember from the rejected message - Ppts given 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- Ppts shadowed 10 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
Findings from experiment 1- The mean words recognised in the showed message was 4.9/7, rejected message it was 1.9/ 7
Findings from experiment 2- Most ppts ignored instructions in the passages they were shadowing - Said they thought this was an attempt to distract them - With name, heard instructions 20/39 times - Without name, heard instructions 4/36 times
Findings from experiment 3- There was no significant different between the digits recall in each condition
Main conclusions from research by Moray- When ppts direct their attention to a message in one ear, almost none of the rejected message is able to penetrate the block - ‘important’ messages, like names, can penetrate the block - So will hear instructions in rejected message
Evaluate the research method- Controlled lab experiment - Standardised, controls extraneous variables - Ppts may have been aware of the study, demand characteristics - Low ecological validity
Data- Quantitative data, no. number of words from a list in an unattended message that P's could recall
Evaluate the data collected in Moray' study- Easy comparison between conditions and for the result to b easily summarised - The study could be repeated to establish test-reset reliability
Ethical issues- The study was conducted ethically as tasks were clearly explained to participants before the study
Validity- High design validity, lab experiment - Standardised, controls extraneous variables - Ppts may have been aware of the study, demand characteristics
Ecologically validity- Low ecological validity, headphones block out background noise - Participants would not experience these conditions in real life
Reliability- Moray uses highly controlled lab experiment and a standardised procedure, therefore it is replicable - Test-retest reliably could be established
Evaluate the sample used in Moray's research- Undergraduate students + research workers - Collected relatively quickly + cheap - May have been pre selected due to their high level of cognitive ability - Not generalisable - May have known the topic they were questioned on
Ethnocentric- Could only be representative of English speaking westerners, who have brains that have been shaped for language
Not ethnocentric- Cognitive processes such as selective attention, depend upon the physiognomy of the brain - Not ethnocentric, investigating a species specific behaviour
To what extent can research by Moray support psychology as a science- Fulfilled scientific criteria and used a lab experiment
Usefulness- Provides robust empirical evidence into auditory selective attention + Cherry's cocktail party effect
How does research by Moray fit into the cognitive area- Cognitive process of attention - By trying to find out if 'unattended' material can penetrate the attention barrier
How does research by Moray link to the key theme- The key theme is attention - Provides robust empirical evidence into auditory selective attention - Info that is either neutral or not important cant penetrate the block