Moray Core Study by Jess Clark

Aims

11clarkjl — 2017-01-11 09:13:49 UTC

To test factors that would enable an unattended dichotically presented message to be noticed

1, The amount of rejected info recognized
2, The effect of hearing ones name in the rejected message
3, The effect of an instruction to identify a specific target in the rejected message

Method

11clarkjl — 2017-01-11 09:14:16 UTC

Lab experiment with 3 studies, 2 repeated and one independent measures design

In S1, memory of words(DV) from a shadowed prose message, a repeated word list and made up words were compared(IV)

In S2, the instruction to change ear was then preceded or not (IV)by the pp's name, and whether they heard it or not was measured (DV)

In S3, the shadowed messaged were numbers, and the pp's were either told to listen to the number or not (IV), and the amount of digits they heard was measured (DV)

Controls included the same volume in either ear, ensuring that the pp's name wasn't any louder and that all passages were read out at a steady speed without any expression

The messages were recorded onto tapes, by a male voice ate a rate of 130-50 words per minute

Participants

11clarkjl — 2017-01-11 09:15:53 UTC

S1- No recorded pp's
S2: 12 pp's
S3: 28 pp's, split into groups of 14

All were undergrads or research workers, and there was a mixture of males and females.

Results

11clarkjl — 2017-01-11 09:16:34 UTC

S1 showed that a small amount of the words from the rejected word list was remembered

S2 showed that effective instructions, in this case the pp's name, can sometimes be heard by breaking through the attention barrier

S3 showed that number could not be made important enough to break the attention barrier

S1:
Message - Mean number of words recognized
Shadowed - 4.9
Rejected - 1.9
New(Made Up) - 2.6

S2:
Number of times name - Effective Instructions - Non <-
Said - 39 - 36
Heard - 20 - 4

Conclusion

11clarkjl — 2017-01-11 09:17:38 UTC

Directing attention away from ones ear blocks the verbal content of that message. Ones own name can, at least sometimes, break through the attention block. Neutral material such as numbers cannot be made important enough (using expectations) to break through the attentional barrier

Key Terms

11clarkjl — 2017-01-11 09:21:43 UTC

Selective attention- Being able to focus our attention on one thing while blocking all other incoming sensory information .

Shadowing- To pay attention to information from one ear.

Dichotics listening- Listening to two different sets of information in each ear.

Evaluation

11clarkjl — 2017-01-11 09:24:01 UTC

Research method: The experimental conditions and the procedures that Moray created were highly controlled in a laboratory, therefore showing high internal validity. However, due to the nature of the study and the sample, responses may have been a result of demand characteristics. Furthermore, listening to sounds through headphones and being asked to block out or shadow the noises is extremely artificial and not true to real life; therefore, the study lacks ecological validity.

Reliability: The procedures of the study, including instructions given to participants, are highly standardised which allows the study to be easily replicated and to check for the reliability of the findings.

Sampling bias: As with many psychology studies, University students took part (as well as research workers). This sample is easily accessible, so saves time and money on obtaining participants. However, the sample is not representative of everyone, as students and research workers are likely to have higher cognitive abilities and may perform better on attention tasks. Therefore the study lacks population validity.

Exam Questions

2017-01-11 09:38:48 UTC

How many words per minute were the messages recorded at? (1 mark)
What does the term dichotic listening mean? (2 marks)
Define the term shadowing (2 marks)
Give a statistical figure from the study? (2 marks)
Describe the sample used in this study (3 marks)
Explain how peripheral blocks work and what they are (2 marks)
Evaluate Morays Study (4 marks)
What could Moray change about the study to make it more valid (4 marks)
Describe the ecological validity in this study (4 marks)