To test Cherry's findings (1953) and investiagte other factors that can affect attention in dichotic listening
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What was the type of study?
Lab experiment
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What equipment was used?
Tape recorder with 2 amplifiers to give 2 independant outputs, one to each earpiece in headphones
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Who read out the passages?
One male speaker at approx. 130 words per minute
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What happened before the experiment?
Ppts practiced shadowing 4 passages
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Experiment 1: Design
Repeated measures
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Experiment 1: IVs
The dichotic listening task and the recognition test
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Experiment 1: DVs
The number of words recognised from the rejected message
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Experiment 1: Procedure
List of words repeated 35 times whilst shadowing prose message. After they reported all they could remember from the rejected mesage and then recognition task
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Experiment 2: Design
Repeated measures
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Experiment 2: IV
Whether or not the instructions were prefixed by their own name
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Experiment 2: DV
The number of affective instructions
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Experiment 2: Sample
12 undergradutes and research workers of both sexes
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Experiment 2: Procedure
They shadowed 10 short passages of light fiction and told to make as few errors as possible. Instructions were interpolated but in 2 instances they were not warnes, in 1/2 the cases they were prefixed by their name
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Experiment 3: Design
Independant measures
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Experiment 3: IVs
Whether digits were inserted in one or both messages and whether ppts answered Qs on the message content at the end of each passage or asked to remember all the numbers they could
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Experiment 3: DV
Number of digits correctly reported
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Experiment 3: Sample
2 groups of 14 undergrads and research workers
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Results; Experiment 1 (Numbers)
Mean no. words recognised: Shadowed=4.9/7 Rejected=1.9/7
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Results: Experiment 1
No trace of material from the rejected message being recognised which supports Cherry's findings (1953)
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Results: Experiment 2
Most ppts ignored the instructions in the shadowed passages (thought it was a distraction attempt) however there was a significant difference with the instructions heard in the rejected message
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Results: Experiment 2 (Numbers)
Affective instructions in rejected passage: With name=20/39 (but only 4 actually switched ear) No name=4/36
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Results: Experiment 3
No significant difference between the number of digits reported under the 2 conditions
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What is the key theme of the study?
Attention
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What debates relate to this study?
Science and usefulness (supports Cherry and improves understanding)
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