She appears to be a very skilled cold reader with some obvious interest in psychology. I've noted that she's rather careful about the people she chooses for her readings. That way she avoids skeptics who might wish to test her. I'd really love to see her presented with a dozen people with maybe two or three skeptics worked in and have to do readings on all of them. The skeptics, of course, should be allowed to answer dishonestly part of the time because I've noticed that Sally and other cold-readers don't tell people anything. They ask them questions. The more often the answer is "yes", the more they appear to be psychic.
Here are a few tricks that seem to be very beneficial to the illusion they create. They seem to have done some study regarding the most popular names in various parts of the world where they do their "readings". This can be further broken down into the most popular names for females, the most popular names for males and the most popular names for males and females through various generations. They rarely just tell the person the name of the "spirit" they claim to have contacted. Instead they start with a letter or even two or three letters, usually the most common letters for the starting of first names in the area where they're working. If the person says "no", they switch to another letter. If the answer is "yes", then they might give a whole name but it's usually a short list of two or three of the most popular names in that area, for that generation and gender, starting with the letter confirmed by the "victim".
Imagine meeting someone at a party and having such a conversation;
You: "Hello! I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."
Them: "Well, it starts with an 'S' or an 'M', perhaps an 'N'."
You: "Oh... well... is it uhm... 'Steve'?"
Them: "No, it isn't Steve."
You: "What about uhm... 'Mark' or 'Michael'?"
Them: "Yes!, Yes! ...well, 'Mike', actually. My parents never went for the formal names."
You: "Well then, how do you do, Mike? Are you here on business?"
Them: "Well, sort of; kind of a business holiday."
You: "If you don't mind me asking, what kind of work do you do?"
Them: "Well, I work with my hands, or some kind of physical labor."
You: "So you're... a construction worker or some kind of a baker, perhaps?"
Them: "No, neither of those. It has to do with numbers."
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Sorry, but that's just not how people converse. And since a spirit is supposed to be a dead person, there is no reason to believe that spirits (were they to exist), would converse that way either. Yet that's what we see these proclaimed psychics doing all of the time.
There's a name for what they do. Actually, it's a game and people can become quite skilled at it. It's called, "20 Questions".
I've also noted that Sally is rather good at recognizing countries of origin for some of her people. It helps them to go along with the whole psychic schtick if she appears to know where they're from before even knowing their name. Some are more difficult to spot than others. People of Jewish decent, Polish decent, German heritage are among some of the easier ones to spot. Accents and dialects giver her additional clues. She also picks up on the way they're dressed. People in rural areas are often less driven by the latest fashions than people from larger cities. You can also tell a certain amount about a person's financial status based on the way they dress and from there, you can eliminate unlikely jobs.
She's good at what she does but she's also very careful about those whom she picks for her readings. It just wouldn't do to accidentally pick a skeptic who was there to test her. I'd love to see a relatively unknown and admitted cold reader attend one of her performances and get picked by her for a reading. It would likely be quite entertaining.
