Sensory Memory Flashcards
What did Sperling initially think was the max duration of sensory memory before short term memory was necessary?
1 second
What did Averbach & Sperling do to increase the duration time of sense memory?
Changed the blank slides from white to black so the white letters from the sensory memory would not be lost by looking at the white slide.
What is echoic memory information distributed across?
Time
What is the max duration of echoic memory?
10 seconds
What happens to stimulus memory without attention?
It decays or is replaced
Why does echoic memory last twice as long as iconic?
Because sounds pass and we need to be able to recall them or they’re gone. For visual, we can usually look back to something to refresh our memory.
This, of course, happened while we evolved which was before we had audio recording.
What is sensory memory?
Brief storage of stimulus information (input buffer)
What is the max capacity for echoic memory?
50%
What is iconic memory info distributed across?
Space
What is echoic sensory memory?
Auditory
What did George Sperling’s iconic memory test find?
Participants saw a white slide for 500ms, followed by a black slide with 12 white letters on it, followed by another white slide. Participants could only recall 4.5 letters afterwards, but claimed they could “see” more than they could report.
What is the max capacity for iconic memory?
75% of original physical stimuli
Describe Averbach and Corell’s (1961) study on interference
Participants saw two rows of 6 letters for 50ms. After, they either saw a bar above a box, or a circle inside a box.
They were to recall what letter was in the target box.
They were much poorer at reporting a letter in the circle condition because of interference (backward masking).
How does information enter stimulus memory?
Automatically
What is iconic sensory memory?
Visual
