Latency of S's response was measured in a task involving recognition memory for short lists of numbers or letters. Subjects saw a list of one to five items presented simultaneously, followed by a string of identical probe items, matched spatially to the locations of the memory set. The S indicated whether the probe item was the same as an item in the memory set. The results showed that under these conditions Ss are able to engage in a fast self -terminating search. The second experiment demonstrated that a self -terminating model, which assumes that the S starts his scan at the middle position of the probe array, proceeding in a self -terminating fashion to either side, fits the major aspects of the data.