Seven Veruses Four

For years the number seven haunted the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller. It is just a coincidence that there is “seven deadly sins, seven days of the week, seven seas, and seven dwarfs” (Roni Jacobson). Miller felt that he was “persecuted by an integer”, so “he then went to describe several experiments where seven pieces of information- plus or minus tow appeared to be the limit of what our mind could retain in the short term” (Roni Jacobson). Since the time of Miller’s theory we now understand that the mind’s capacity has to do with several factors such as “age, attention, and the type of information presented” (Roni Jacobson). After psychologists studied further into short term memory, they have now realized by “chunking” information it helps our ability to retain and remember. The smaller the words or concepts you are learning the easier you are able to recall the information. The larger the words or concepts the more difficult it is to quickly retain what you have just learned. It is now believed we can “recall about four chunks of information at a time” (Roni Jacobson). I found this article interesting because it ties in with what I have learned in Psychology previously and also what I am learning right now in Child Psychology. I agree with the psychologists’ who believe we can recall about four chunks of information at once. Four chunks of information is a reasonable amount for the brain to remember, seven pieces of information at once is an overload. I also believe the brain retains better when learning about something of interest, therefore I am sure in certain cases the brain can recall more than four chunks in certain cases. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/science/seven-isnt-the-magic-number-for-short-term-memory.html?ref=science