Persistence of a briefly presented visual stimulus in sensory memory

Abstract

College students were given 12 trials in which two 4 by 4 matrices of letters were presented sequentially, each for 100 msec. On one-half of the trials, the second matrix was the same as the first, and on one-half of the trials, the second matrix differed from the first. Both the interval between the two presentations and the degree of difference between the second matrix and the first were manipulated systematically. Results indicated that when the difference between the second matrix and the first was either large or nonexistent, recognition was good. When the difference between the matrices was small, performance decreased significantly. The interstimulus interval variable was not significant. Results were discussed in terms of Sperling’s (1960) findings and those of Cermak (1971) and Phillips (1974). © 1980, The psychonomic soceity, inc.. All rights reserved.