TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: 7 plus or minus 2 From:"Peter C. Johnson" <raoul -at- MINDSPRING -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 29 Jul 1997 06:15:53 -0400
Geoff wonders:
> I've seen several mentions of George Miller's "7 plus or
> minus 2 rule" to justify chunking information into 5-9
> pieces, but this leads me to ask one crucial question that
> I've never seen answered: has anyone actually tested
> Miller's research to confirm that it applies in the context
> of technical writing? I have not doubt that his underlying
> principle is sound (i.e., that there's a limit on
> short-term memory), but I haven't seen anything that says
> it is 7 plus or minus 2. I haven't tried a literature
> search, as I lack the resources to do so, so I was
> wondering whether any of our academic colleagues might have
> the answer.
I worked for a time in opertions research of Soviet cybernetics. (OK,
wizards, apply *those* buzzwords.) We looked into military leadership
problems and found this rich body of research on something called "control
theory" that was ignored in the West because few people read Russian.
The Rooshians tried for optimal relationships between entities, i.e., units
on the battlefield or the usual drunks running machine tools in their
quaint factories. Anyway, they felt that the optimal number of sub-elements
that a person or entity could control was 6 or 7, and no more than nine.
When I read the chunking stats, imagine how fascinated I was.
Sorry for no citations, but it's a dim memory from my days in the
amerikansky military-industrial complex.
I return you to technical writing.
PJ
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
