Sensory Memory- Sperling (1960)

Sensory Memory- Sperling (1960)

1. Used a chart containing three rows of letters, which he displayed for very brief exposures for the participants

   • Participants were immediately asked to recall and could usually only recall about four or five.
     • The participants frequently reported having been aware of more letters even though they could no longer recall them.

2. He decided to change the procedure slightly.

   • He then trained the participants to distinguish between three tones. he then exposed the chart for the same amount of time but, this time, played one of the tones as soon as the chart had disappeared
     • Participants were instructed to recall the top row of letters in response to a high tone, the middle row in response to a medium tone and the bottom row is in response to a low tone.
       • Under these circumstances, participants were able to recall, on average, three times from whichever row had been cues by the tone (the participants didm't know what were on these rows)
         • This suggests that, at this stage, they would have been able to recall an average of three letters in any of the three rows, because an image of the whole array of letters was avalible in their iconic memory

3. Methodological issues

   • Laboratory experiment, meaning a high level of control and it can be replicated with similar results (reliable)
   • the stimuli was artifical and may not reflect how we use memory in everyday circumstances (eg, the study might lack validity)
   • Sperling listened to what the participants said baout the experiment, so he generated a new hypthesis and devise a new method to test it

4. Ethical issues

   • No serious ethical issues in a study of this nature
   • the investigator alway has to gain the consent of participants ad to debreif them afterwards
     • In a study like this, where participants might have felt frustarted by their inability to recall all the letters, the debreifing is important as a means of reassuring people that their performance was well within normal range