Question

Students in a psychology experiment were exposed to three nonsense syllables for a very short period of time and then asked to recall them. If the instructions to recall the syllables came immediately, the students were usually successful. If the instructions came even one second after the syllables were shown, the students were much less successful. The MOST plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that, in the latter case, ________.

A. the icon was already stored in short-term memory

B. the icon faded after being stored in short-term memory

C. the icon faded before being stored in short-term memory

D. the icon never made it to the sensory registers

Answer 1

The best explanation for the observed decline in recalling nonsense syllables after a short delay is that the information faded from the sensory memory before it could be transferred to the short-term memory, demonstrating rapid memory trace decay.

Therefore, the correct answer is: option C. the icon faded before being stored in short-term memory

Step-by-step explanation:

Sensory memory decays in a non-linear fashion, but this decay rate is dependent on a number of factors.

Therefore, the most plausible explanation for the phenomenon where students recall nonsense syllables immediately but struggle after a one-second delay is that the icon faded before being stored in short-term memory. This can be attributed to the concepts of sensory memory and short-term memory (STM).

Sensory memory is a very brief storage of sensory events up to a couple of seconds, which if not immediately processed can fade rapidly before being transferred to STM.

Moreover, the findings of Ebbinghaus on the forgetting curve demonstrate how quickly memory trace decay can occur, further supporting the claim that the icon faded before reaching STM.