Transcript Visual Cocktail Party Phenomenon

Visual Cocktail Party
Phenomenon
Amanda Caddell
Angie French
Kevin Utt
Julie Witherup
Introduction
Moray (1959)
Cocktail Party Phenomenon
Neisser and Becklen (1975)
Selective “looking”
Hypothesis
Participants will selectively
attend to a visually relevant
person more than a less visually
relevant person
Method
Participants
26 students
25 Caucasian
1 Japanese
31% freshman
23% sophomores
23% juniors
23% seniors
Equipment
Video production
Sony digital handycam, model number DCRTRV17
Quicktime Pro by Apple Computers, Inc.
Apparatus
Gateway computer model # E-3400
Windows 98
Quicktime version 6.5
Screen size 13”
Stimuli
Production--3 video clips superimposed
Clip 1: white t-shirts
Clip 2: black t-shirts
Clip 3: Betsy or Erica
2 Videos
Personally relevant person (Betsy)
Less personally relevant person (Erica)
Procedure
Randomly assigned
Condition 1: Betsy
Condition 2: Erica
Video
Questionnaire
Questions relevant to condition
Betsy—“How often do you eat in the UG?”
Erica—”How often do you go to the Career Center?”
Results
Chi Square Analyses
Comparing the frequency of whether participants
detected a person walking across the screen in
each condition
Betsy
Erica
Total
Yes
No
Total
8
61.5%
5
38.5%
5
38.5%
8
61.5%
13
13
13
26
13
² (1) = 1.39, ns
Chi Square Analyses
Comparing the frequency of whether participants
identified the person walking across the screen in
each condition
Betsy Other
No
Total
One
Betsy
Erica
4
30.8%
0
1
7.7%
0
Total
4
1
8
61.5%
13
100%
21
13
13
26
² (2) = 6.19, p < .05
Discussion
Participants selectively attend to the
personally relevant individual
Related to Moray’s findings
Limitations
Small, homogeneous sample
Counterbalancing of the
attention task
Personally relevant individual
may not have been equally
relevant to all participants
Questions
References
Moray, N. (1959). Attention in dichotic
listening: Affective cues and the influence of
instructions. Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 11, 56-60
Neisser, U. & Becklen, R. (1975). Selective
looking: Attending to visually specified
events. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 480-494