Sensory Registor

Question 1

What is the capacity of the sensory register?

Answer 1

Unlimited

The sensory register can hold an unlimited amount of sensory information.

Question 2

What is the duration of information in the sensory register?

Answer 2

Limited

Information in the sensory register lasts for no more than a few seconds.

Question 3

What is the coding form of the sensory register?

Answer 3

Unprocessed form

The sensory register holds information in an unprocessed state.

Question 4

What does the sensory register enable you to do?

Answer 4

Remember sensory stimuli after exposure

It retains sensory information briefly after the stimulus has ended.

Question 5

Name the two main parts of the sensory register.

Answer 5

• Iconic store
• Echoic store

The iconic store holds visual information, while the echoic store holds auditory information.

Question 6

What type of information does the iconic store hold?

Answer 6

Visual information

It captures what you see.

Question 7

What type of information does the echoic store hold?

Answer 7

Auditory information

It captures what you hear.

Question 8

What is the haptic store responsible for?

Answer 8

What you feel

It is one of the other sensory stores.

Question 9

What is the gustatory store responsible for?

Answer 9

What you taste

It is one of the other sensory stores.

Question 10

What is the olfactory store responsible for?

Answer 10

What you smell

It is one of the other sensory stores.

Question 11

How long does visual memory hold images?

Answer 11

Less than a second

Visual memory fades quickly after the image is seen.

Question 12

How long does auditory memory hold sound?

Answer 12

A few seconds

Auditory memory retains sound for a short duration.

Question 13

What happens to information in the sensory register if you don’t pay attention to it?

Answer 13

It fades, known as trace decay

Lack of attention leads to the loss of sensory information.

Question 14

What is the capacity of the sensory register according to Sperling (1960)?

Answer 14

A minimum of 4 items

The capacity may be larger than 4 items due to the rapid decay of items.

Question 15

What is the duration of the sensory register as concluded by Sperling (1960)?

Answer 15

Between 250 to 500 milliseconds

This duration is about 1/5 to ½ of a second.

Question 16

What are the separate sensory stores for different sensory inputs?

Answer 16

• Echoic store: sounds
• Iconic store: visual input
• Haptic store: touch
• Gustatory store: taste
• Olfactory store: smell

Each store holds unprocessed information from its respective sensory input.

Question 17

In Sperling’s (1960) study, participants were shown a grid of letters for how many milliseconds?

Answer 17

50 milliseconds

This brief exposure time was used to test the capacity and duration of the sensory register.

Question 18

True or false: In Sperling’s (1960) study, participants could recall an average of 3 items when asked to recall single rows of letters.

Answer 18

TRUE

Participants recalled approximately 3 items when prompted with specific tones for rows.

Question 19

What was the aim of Sperling’s (1960) study?

Answer 19

To investigate the capacity and duration of the sensory register

The study aimed to understand how much information can be held and for how long.

Question 20

What’s capacity?

Answer 20

Amount of info a store can hold at any one time

Question 21

What’s coding?

Answer 21

The way info is changed so that it can be stored in memory

Question 22

What’s duration?

Answer 22

The length of time info can be held in memory

Question 23

High control (eval of Sperling)

Answer 23

-strength, lab experiment done so high control over extraneous variables
-all participants has same experience, given same standardized instructions
-study is unlikely to be affected by confounding variables
-can be confident that duration of sensory memory is limited and capacity is large as evidence supporting it has high internal validity

Question 24

Low ecological validity (eval of Sperling)

Answer 24

-limitation
-participants were shown random letters in lab and asked to recall them- may not be like info presented in real life situations
-may be difficult to generalise to how sensory memory works in real life
-not strong evidence to support theory, duration of sensory memory limited and capacity is large