Peterson and Peterson experiment

The Peterson and Peterson experiment, conducted in 1959, aimed to study short-term memory retention. Participants were shown a set of trigrams (three-letter combinations) and were asked to remember them. To prevent rehearsal, they were instructed to count backward by threes during a delay period before recalling the trigrams. The results showed that after just 15 seconds, recall significantly declined, suggesting that without active rehearsal, information quickly fades from short-term memory. This experiment highlighted the limitations of our short-term memory and the importance of active engagement for memory retention.