= Saul Sternberg
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<Saul Sternberg> investigated the timing of <mental processes> using controlled <reaction time> experiments. In a 1966 memory-scanning study, participants judged whether a test symbol belonged to a short memorized set. Mean <reaction time> increased with set length, motivating an account involving rapid internal comparisons.<High-Speed Scanning in Human Memory by Saul Sternberg>[Abstract; task, linear size effect and original interpretation]{ref}
An illustrative decomposition is $T(n)=a+bn$, where $n$ is the number of stored symbols, $a$ summarizes size-independent time and $b$ summarizes additional time per item. If $a=300\,\mathrm{ms}$ and $b=35\,\mathrm{ms}$ per item, increasing $n$ from two to six increases predicted time from $370$ to $510\,\mathrm{ms}$. These are invented teaching values, not reported estimates.
The methodological insight is to turn a proposed <mental process> into a pattern of quantitative predictions. A linear trend by itself does not uniquely prove one internal architecture; competing processes and strategies must be compared. This distinction keeps the observed timing effect separate from the explanatory model.
Institutional profile: https://psychology.sas.upenn.edu/people/saul-sternberg .
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