Question

Explain what is meant by “the magical number 7.”

Answer 1

Miller thought that a person has limited capacity in the short term memory and could hold 7 items in the short term memory, plus or minus 2. This means that people can store between 5 to 9 items in the short term memory. According to miller chunking the information helps a person remember the information better as the information is linked with each other in a meaningful way. The duration of these items is said to last for 30 seconds in the short terms memory according to Shiffrin and Atkinson. Research on plus and minus 7 has also showed to be consistent with Miller's idea.