Sperlings study

Name: Sperling

Date: 1960

Topic: Sensory memory

Type of experiment: Lab

The first experiment

Method of study:

• Sperling used a chart containing three rows of letters, which he displayed for very brief exposures - 50 milliseconds - to his participants
• Participants were immediately asked to recall as many of the letters as possible

Findings:

• Participants could usually only recall about 4 or 5 letters
• However, participants reported having been aware of more letters even though they could no longer recall them

The second experiment

Method of study:

• By changing his study slightly, he trained participants to distinguish between three tones
• He then exposed the chart for the same amount of time - 50 milliseconds but this time , he played one of the…