
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two (1955) - asamant
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Miller/
======
MAXPOOL
Modern consensus is that 4 is the real magic number. Humans can store only
four chunks in short-term memory tasks.

For working memory and visual memory the number 4 pops up again and again.

When you are holding 5-9 things in memory you can't 'work with them'
effectively. You might be chunking objects together or alternating very fast.
Verbal memory can be tricky that way. (computer analogy: 4 is number or
registers, 3-5 other objects may be stored in L1 cache).

Good starting point: Visual short term memory
[http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Visual_short_term_memory](http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Visual_short_term_memory)

[1]: Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A
reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24,
87-185. doi:10.1017/S0140525X01003922

[2]: Cowan, N., Elliott, E. M., Saults, J. S., Morey, C. C., Mattox, S.,
Ismajatulina, A., et al. (2005). On the capacity of attention: Its estimation
and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes. Cognitive Psychology,
51, 42-100. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2004.12.001

[3]: The Magic Number 4 ± 0: A New Look at Visual Numerosity Judgements (1976)
doi: 10.1068/p050327

[4]: The Magical Mystery Four: How is Working Memory Capacity Limited, and
Why? (2010) doi: 10.1177/0963721409359277

------
DonHopkins
I don't want to start a religious war, but can't we all just agree that eight
is the ideal magical number, thanks to its voluptuous roundedness and power-
of-two-ness?

Behold eight's symmetrical beauty: 8

Seven is just so odd, gangling, unbalanced, and awkward in comparison, like
it's just about to fall over: 7

~~~
_0ffh
On Discworld, at least, it is.

------
chrisweekly
Fantastic, classic paper. Well worth the 20(?) minutes of attention it
requires. Learning, memory, information theory...

------
jon_elbrook
im in the minus two camp

------
dang
Tiny threads from 2015:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9700016](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9700016),

2014:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8516542](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8516542),

and 2010:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1882628](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1882628)

Related from 2009:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=808039](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=808039)

Url changed from
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two)
to the paper.

