Abstract
Immediate memory span is limited to roughly seven chunks (plus or minus two) across diverse absolute-judgment and span tasks — a fundamental constraint on human information processing (Miller, 1956).
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81–97. DOI
Key findings
- Channel capacity: — Absolute judgment and immediate recall converge on ~7 distinct categories or chunks as an information-processing limit.
- Chunking: — Meaningful grouping expands effective capacity — a chunk is the largest familiar unit.
Application
When a phone number recoded as 3 chunks (area code, prefix, line) fits within span; 10 random digits without chunking exceeds typical immediate recall — open this cite for the study behind the move.