Sternberg (1966) found that the response time curves for probe present and probe absent trials were nearly identical. Consider the concepts of ‘self-terminating search’ and ‘exhaustive search’. Self-terminating search is a method where searching ends when an item is found (for example, your keys are always in the last place you looked because you stop looking once you find them). Exhaustive search is a method where an entire set is searched even if the target item is detected before the end of the set. Which of these search models is consistent with Sternberg’s short-term memory search data?