When Sperling visually displayed three rows of three letters each for only 1/20th of a second, experimental participants:
A)appeared to have a momentary photographic memory of all the letters in the display
B)recalled about seven letters, due to the limits of short-term memory
C)recalled the letters in the first and last rows, but not the letters in the middle row
D)recalled very few letters, because they didn't have enough time to see them all

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Sperling's experiment demonstrated that participants had a brief, almost complete visual memory of the entire array of letters, but this memory faded quickly before they could report all of them. This phenomenon supports the idea of a momentary photographic memory, known as iconic memory.

When Sperling Visually Displayed Three Rows of Three Letters Each