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Cognitive psychology of human memory (thesaurus)

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Concept information

Preferred term

Sternberg task  

Definition

  • Experimental paradigm (Sternberg, 1966) to study retrieval processes in short-term memory.

Broader concept

Entry terms

  • memory scanning experiment
  • memory scanning paradigm
  • Sternberg item recognition task
  • Sternberg paradigm
  • Sternberg's memory scanning paradigm

Belongs to group

Bibliographic citation(s)

Creator

  • Frank Arnould

Editorial note

  • The Sternberg task, in its original form, consists of presenting the subject with lists of 1 to 6 digits. At the end of each list, the subject is asked to decide whether or not a probe digit is part of the memorized list. The results show that reaction time increases linearly with the number of items in the list, regardless of whether the probe is in the list or not. According to Sternberg, these results indicate that short-term memory retrieval is achieved through an exhaustive scanning of the memory content by means of a serial comparison process.

In other languages

  • French

  • paradigme de Sternberg
  • paradigme du balayage mnésique
  • tâche de reconnaissance d'un item de Sternberg

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/P66-KGF9JFL6-2

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