Question

What happens to the information from your iconic information if you shift your attention elsewhere?

A) Information from iconic memory is preserved even when attention shifts.
B) Information from iconic memory is immediately forgotten when attention shifts.
C) Information from iconic memory is transferred to short-term memory when attention shifts.
D) Information from iconic memory becomes part of long-term memory when attention shifts.

Answer 1

Iconic memory information is immediately forgotten when attention shifts, as it only lasts a couple of seconds unless it is deemed valuable and transferred to short-term memory.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct answer is B) Information from iconic memory is immediately forgotten when attention shifts. Iconic memory pertains to the sensory memory stage according to Atkinson and Shiffrin's model of memory. It is an ultra-short-term memory that stores visual images and lasts only up to a couple of seconds. When we shift our attention to something else, we typically do not retain the information from iconic memory unless we have found it valuable and thus transferred it to our short-term memory for further processing. Without attention, the visual information decays almost immediately and is not encoded into either short-term or long-term memory.