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Subject:RE: The Myth of Seven, Plus or Minus Two From:"Jim Shaeffer" <jims -at- spsi -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 3 Dec 2003 11:49:45 -0500
Aha. Maybe everybody is right!
I recall some congnitive theory that went like this:
Before you can store anything in long-term memory (really
learn it) it has to go into your short-term memory (the
7 plus or minus 2 buffers).
Once it's in those buffers, the trick is to integrate the
contents of those buffers into larger (usually
pre-existing) patterns in your memory. Once the items are
integrated into those larger patterns the buffer limit no
longer applies. If the the contents of the buffers are
not integrated into the larger partterns, then they are
not remembered.
This theory was applied to lesson design. After
introducing "chunks" of about seven new items, you had
to give the students the opportunity to integrate those
items into their long-term memory patterns.
If you introduced too many new items without enabling
that integration into existing patterns, the buffers
would overflow and the data would be lost.
So "learn mode" is, in this sense, limited.
The student can learn a lot more than seven data points,
it's just done "seven at a time", whether we are concious
of the number or not.
The actor remembers more than 7 words because those words
can be integrated into a larger pattern, a container that
causes them to no longer be aritrary lists.
Jim Shaeffer (jims -at- spsi -dot- com)
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com
>
> After successfully graduating from engineering I can
> tell you that there are many theories, algorithms,
> concepts, etc. that require many more than
> any arbitrary number of points to correctly comprehend.
>
> The Miller study is for IMMEDIATE recall of UNIDIMENSIONAL data.
>
> Sorry to be blunt, but the illogic of saying "learn" mode is
> limited by some artificial number of elements is stunning IMO.
> Do actors only learn 7 words at a time? 7 lines? 7 acts?
> Of course not. The same applies to all other multidimensional
> data and recall.
>
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