Guessing Behaviour and the Sperling Store

Abstract

Recall of briefly exposed letters was measured by whole report and partial report procedures. The cues for partial report were presented in advance, or in random, constrained or non-random sequences; the degree of statistical constraint determined subject accuracy in guessing the cues. The results indicate that the amount of letter recall is largely dependent upon both sequential and spatial guessing accuracy. It is suggested that the data are adequately explained by cue anticipation, the visual storage hypothesis receiving no support.