In Sperling's whole report paradigm, why do participants typically only report about 5 items?

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Question restatement: In Sperling's whole report paradigm, why do participants typically only report about 5 items?

Option A: Because that's all that was shown in the display. This is misleading because the display presents more items than five in a typical Sperling task, so the limited reporting is not due to the sheer number shown but to memory constraints.

Option B: Because they had poor vision. While vision issues could affect performance in some tasks, the classic Sperling paradigm controls for this by using brief, high-contrast displays and assessing short-term memory capacity; the phenomenon is not simply about perceptual acuity.

Option C: Because working memory capacity is limited to ~5 items, and iconic memory decays before more items can be reported. This option aligns with the core interpretation of Sperling's findings: the sensory (iconic) memory holds many items briefly, but reportability is constrained by the central working memory system’s capacity, roughly around five items, and the rapid decay of iconic memory limits how many items can be transferred and reported.

Option D: No answer text provided. This option is invalid in the context of the given choices and does not offer a substantive explanation related to the Sperling paradigm.

Expanded reasoning:
- For option A, the misstep is equating display quantity with reportable quantity; the paradigm deliberately tests how many items can be reported from a briefly flashed array, not merely how many items appeared. The bottleneck is cognitive, not perceptual saturation alone.
- For option B, the underlying mechanism is not primarily about visual acuity. Sperling’s results emerge even with participants who have normal vision when the task isolates short-term memory for briefly presented items, suggesting memory capacity rather than perceptual deficiency.
- For option C, the key idea is that while iconic memory can briefly hold many items, the process of consolidating information into a usable report taps into working memory with a capacity limit around five items. The rapid decay of iconic memory further restricts how many items can be encoded into conscious report within the brief available time, explaining the typical ~5-item report.
- For option D, this is a non-substantive choice that fails to engage with the cognitive mechanisms demonstrated by Sperling; it does not address the memory processes involved in whole report performance.

In summary, the most accurate explanation among the options is the one that cites the working memory capacity limit (~5 items) and the rapid decay of iconic memory as the reason participants report about five items in Sperling's whole report paradigm. The other options either misattribute the limitation to perceptual display factors, general vision issues, or rely on an empty choice that provides no substantive reasoning.

PSC 135 001 SQ 2025 Lecture 19 Quiz: Introduction to Memory

In Sperling's whole report paradigm, why do participants typically only report about 5 items?

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