Sensory Memory

1) What was Sperling's study?

2) What were the results?

3) What were the methodological issues?

1) Sperling used a chart containing three rows of letters which he exposed for brief periods of time to the participants. The participants were then asked to immediately recall them. On average the participants could only recall about three letters. So Sperling decided to change his technique. This time he would use three tones; the highest tone would be played when the participants would have to memorise the top row of letters. The middle tone would be played when the participants need to remember the middle row of letters and the lowest tone with the lowest row. 

2) In the first experiment recall was 42%. In the second experiment there was 75% recall.

3) There is a high level of control and can be replicated but it may not reflect real life.