Identify the element of sensory memory that would be most useful in quickly scanning a map of a country to learn the geographical location of its states.

iconic

Explanation:

Sensory memory allows us to retain information obtained through the senses for a short period; subsequently, these signals will be discarded or transmitted to other stores of longer duration, working memory and long-term memory, through which it will be possible to operate on immediate stimuli.

While it is considered that there are probably short-lived mnemic stores for all the senses, the ones that have been studied in greater depth are iconic, echoic and haptic memory.

Iconic memory

The most researched type of sensory memory is the iconic one, which records visual information. The most relevant contributions around this phenomenon were made by George Sperling in the 50s and 60s, but later authors such as Neisser, Sakkit and Breitmeyer have updated the conception of iconic memory.

Through his pioneering studies with tachystoscope, Sperling concluded that people have the ability to simultaneously retain 4 or 5 items after fixing their gaze for a moment in a broad stimulating set. Other researchers discovered that iconic memory persists for about 250 milliseconds.

In this case, the “fingerprint” is the “fingerprint” that we keep in short-term memory. At present there is debate about whether this icon is located in the central or peripheral nervous system; In any case, the conception that iconic memory is fundamentally a laboratory device without ecological validity predominates.