I have fond memories of arguing with a few web developers (during a redesign discussion) who tried to hit me with both “can’t have more than 7 items, give or take 2” and “user shouldn’t need more than 3 clicks to get to where they want”. fun times…
A variety of researches are examined from the standpoint of information theory. It is shown that the unaided observer is severely limited in terms of the amount of information he can receive, process, and remember. However, it is shown that by the use of various techniques, e.g., use of several stimulus dimensions, recoding, and various mnemonic devices, this informational bottleneck can be ...
The magical number seven plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information
Other articles where The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information is discussed: George A. Miller: In a famous paper, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information” (1956), Miller proposed as a law of human cognition and information processing that humans can effectively process no ...
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two. " The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information " is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was written by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Harvard University 's Department of Psychology and published in 1956 in ...
Tarnow finds that in a classic experiment typically argued as supporting a 4 item buffer by Murdock, there is in fact no evidence for such and thus the "magical number", at least in the Murdock experiment, is 1. Other prominent theories of short-term memory capacity argue against measuring capacity in terms of a fixed number of elements.
The number of chunks a human can recall immediately after presentation depends on the category of chunks used (e.g., span is around seven for digits, around six for letters, and around five for words), and even on features of the chunks within a category. Chunking is used by the brain's short-term memory as a method for keeping groups ...
In a one-dimensional absolute-judgment task, a person is presented with a number of stimuli that vary on one dimension ( e.g., 10 different tones varying only in pitch) and responds to each stimulus with a corresponding response (learned before). Performance is nearly perfect up to five or six different stimuli but declines as the number of different stimuli is increased. The task can be described as one of information transmission: The input consists of one out of n possible stimuli, and the output consists of one out of n responses. The information contained in the input can be determined by the number of binary decisions that need to be made to arrive at the selected stimulus, and the same holds for the response. Therefore, people's maximum performance on one-dimensional absolute judgement can be characterized as an information channel capacity with approximately 2 to 3 bits of information, which corresponds to the ability to distinguish between four and eight alternatives.
Miller recognized that the correspondence between the limits of one-dimensional absolute judgment and of short-term memory span was only a coincidence, because only the first limit, not the second, can be characterized in information-theoretic terms (i.e., as a roughly constant number of bits). Therefore, there is nothing "magical" about ...
Therefore, there is nothing "magical" about the number seven, and Miller used the expression only rhetorically. Nevertheless, the idea of a "magical number 7" inspired much theorizing, rigorous and less rigorous, about the capacity limits of human cognition. The number seven constitutes a useful heuristic, reminding us that lists ...
Using a technique called the Brown-Peterson technique which prevents the possibility of retrieval by having participants count backwards in 3s. Peterson and Peterson (1959) showed that the longer the delay, the less information is recalled. The rapid loss of information from memory when rehearsal is prevented is taken as an indication ...
There are two ways in which capacity is tested, one being span, the other being recency effect. The Magic number 7 (plus or minus two) provides evidence for the capacity of short term memory. Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory.
The Magic number 7 (plus or minus two) provides evidence for the capacity of short term memory. Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory. This idea was put forward by Miller (1956) and he called it the magic number 7. He though that short term memory could hold 7 ...
He though that short term memory could hold 7 (plus or minus 2 items) because it only had a certain number of “slots” in which items could be stored. However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot.
The rapid loss of information from memory when rehearsal is prevented is taken as an indication of short term memory having a limited duration. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) have developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they call working memory.
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two. " The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information " is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was written by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Harvard University 's Department of Psychology and published in 1956 in ...
Tarnow finds that in a classic experiment typically argued as supporting a 4 item buffer by Murdock, there is in fact no evidence for such and thus the "magical number", at least in the Murdock experiment, is 1. Other prominent theories of short-term memory capacity argue against measuring capacity in terms of a fixed number of elements.
The number of chunks a human can recall immediately after presentation depends on the category of chunks used (e.g., span is around seven for digits, around six for letters, and around five for words), and even on features of the chunks within a category. Chunking is used by the brain's short-term memory as a method for keeping groups ...
In a one-dimensional absolute-judgment task, a person is presented with a number of stimuli that vary on one dimension ( e.g., 10 different tones varying only in pitch) and responds to each stimulus with a corresponding response (learned before). Performance is nearly perfect up to five or six different stimuli but declines as the number of different stimuli is increased. The task can be described as one of information transmission: The input consists of one out of n possible stimuli, and the output consists of one out of n responses. The information contained in the input can be determined by the number of binary decisions that need to be made to arrive at the selected stimulus, and the same holds for the response. Therefore, people's maximum performance on one-dimensional absolute judgement can be characterized as an information channel capacity with approximately 2 to 3 bits of information, which corresponds to the ability to distinguish between four and eight alternatives.
Miller recognized that the correspondence between the limits of one-dimensional absolute judgment and of short-term memory span was only a coincidence, because only the first limit, not the second, can be characterized in information-theoretic terms (i.e., as a roughly constant number of bits). Therefore, there is nothing "magical" about ...
Therefore, there is nothing "magical" about the number seven, and Miller used the expression only rhetorically. Nevertheless, the idea of a "magical number 7" inspired much theorizing, rigorous and less rigorous, about the capacity limits of human cognition. The number seven constitutes a useful heuristic, reminding us that lists ...
"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was written by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Harvard University's Department of Psychology and published in 1956 in Psychological Review. It is often interpreted to argue that the number of objects an average human can hold in short-term memory is 7 ± 2. This has occasionally been referred to as Miller's …
In his article, Miller discussed a coincidence between the limits of one-dimensional absolute judgment and the limits of short-term memory. In a one-dimensional absolute-judgment task, a person is presented with a number of stimuli that vary on one dimension (e.g., 10 different tones varying only in pitch) and responds to each stimulus with a corresponding response (learned before). Performance is nearly perfect up to five or six different stimuli but declines as the numb…
Later research on short-term memory and working memory revealed that memory span is not a constant even when measured in a number of chunks. The number of chunks a human can recall immediately after presentation depends on the category of chunks used (e.g., span is around seven for digits, around six for letters, and around five for words), and even on features of the chunks within a category. Chunking is used by the brain's short-term memory as a method for ke…
Cowan also noted a number of other limits of cognition that point to a "magical number four", and different from Miller, he argued that this correspondence is no coincidence. One other process that seems to be limited at about four elements is subitizing, the rapid enumeration of small numbers of objects. When a number of objects are flashed briefly, their number can be determined very quickly, at a glance, when the number does not exceed the subitizing limit, whic…
• Baddeley's model of working memory
• Chunking (psychology)
• Cognitive dimensions of notations
• Fitts's law
• Derek M. Jones (2002). The 7±2 Urban Legend (pdf file)
• In-depth discussion on many myths about Miller's paper at Edward Tufte's site.
• Migliore, Michele; Novara, Gaspare; Tegolo, Domenico (2008). "Single neuron binding properties and the magical number 7". Hippocampus. 18 (11): 1122–30. doi:10.1002/hipo.20480. PMID 18680161. S2CID 13528916.