Features Of Memory Stores- SR

Question 1

What are the 6 AO1 points you must know for features of the sensory register

Answer 1

-capacity
-duration
-coding
-role of attention
-modality specific
-sperlings research

Question 2

What is the capacity of the sensory register?

Answer 2

The sensory register has an extremely large capacity, capable of holding vast amounts of sensory information for a brief period.

Question 3

How long does information last in the sensory register?

Answer 3

Information in the sensory register has a very short duration—typically less than half a second for visual stimuli and around 2 seconds for auditory stimuli.

Question 4

How is information encoded in the sensory register?

Answer 4

Information is stored in the sensory register in a raw, unprocessed form. It is modality-specific: visual stimuli are stored as images, and auditory stimuli as sounds.

Question 5

What is the role of attention in the sensory register?

Answer 5

For sensory information to be transferred to short-term memory, it must be attended to. Without attention, the information quickly fades and is lost.

Question 6

How is the sensory register modality-specific?

Answer 6

The sensory register contains separate stores for each type of sensory input, such as iconic memory for visual stimuli and echoic memory for auditory stimuli

Question 7

What research supports the sensory register’s capacity?

Answer 7

Sperling (1960) found that participants could recall a few letters from a grid, but when cued with a specific row, they could recall almost all letters, suggesting the sensory register has a large capacity but the information fades without attention.