Chunking

Although short-term memory Opens in new window briefly holds an average of about seven items, it is possible to increase the length of each item by using a process called chunking (Baddeley, 2009c).

Chunking is combining an entire list into a meaningful chunk, so it can be remembered along with six or seven more chunks.

In a narrow sense, Chunking involves combining separate items of information to a larger unit, or chunk, and then remembering chunks of information rather than individual items.

Chunks are the integrated pieces or units of information. As first suggested by George Miller (1956), chunking is a powerful memory tool that greatly increases the amount of information that you can hold in short-term memory. According to Miller (1956) about seven chunks of information can be held in short-term memory at any time.

The question of what constitutes a “chunk” depends on your personal experience. For example, “IBM” would be one chunk if you know about International Business Machines, but t would be three if you didn’t.

Simon (1974) tested Miller’s ideas on chunking by studying memory span for words, two-word phrases, and eight-word phrases. The number of words in the span increased from seven words to nine with two-word phrases and 22 with eight-word phrases. At the level of chunks, Simon argued that an entire phrase forms a single chunk. The number of chunks recalled varied less over condition than the number of words—t fell from six or seven with unrelated words to four with two-word phrases and three with eight-word phrases.

Chunking Exercise

Applying Scientific Method
Scientific method involves observing what occurs and seeing if there is a pattern. For example, you know that Miller found most people have an STM capacity of 7 plus or minus 2, which we call Miller’s magic number. But you can test the idea that we can store far more than 9 items in STM by chunking them. This means we group similar things together in one category, for example: mug+spoon+teabag+sugar+milk. Ask whoever does the main shopping at home how they remember what’s needed—do they chunk their list? From such observations you could construct a prediction, called a hypothesis, and then test it. You could predict that people will recall more things, or recall them faster, if they chunk items rather than trying to remember them randomly. You could try compiling and printing out a random shopping list for the supermarket, mixing up about 25 items from all around the store. Then make a second list of 25 different items but this time chunk them, i.e., group together similar items (like fresh vegetables; tinned goods; but don’t use headings!). Test someone—not the main shopper—on the first list: give them 1 minute to read and learn, then 2 minutes to recall by writing items down. Then do the same for the second list. They will probably do better or faster on the second list, and you can explain why to them. In science it is important to test the hypothesis, and find out whether it is correct or wrong. This is the way we increase scientific knowledge.
(From Michael Eysenck, AQA Psychology: AS and A-level Year 1)

Applying Scientific Method

Scientific method involves observing what occurs and seeing if there is a pattern. For example, you know that Miller found most people have an STM capacity of 7 plus or minus 2, which we call Miller’s magic number. But you can test the idea that we can store far more than 9 items in STM by chunking them. This means we group similar things together in one category, for example: mug+spoon+teabag+sugar+milk.

Ask whoever does the main shopping at home how they remember what’s needed—do they chunk their list?

From such observations you could construct a prediction, called a hypothesis, and then test it. You could predict that people will recall more things, or recall them faster, if they chunk items rather than trying to remember them randomly.

You could try compiling and printing out a random shopping list for the supermarket, mixing up about 25 items from all around the store. Then make a second list of 25 different items but this time chunk them, i.e., group together similar items (like fresh vegetables; tinned goods; but don’t use headings!). Test someone—not the main shopper—on the first list: give them 1 minute to read and learn, then 2 minutes to recall by writing items down. Then do the same for the second list. They will probably do better or faster on the second list, and you can explain why to them.

In science it is important to test the hypothesis, and find out whether it is correct or wrong. This is the way we increase scientific knowledge.

(From Michael Eysenck, AQA Psychology: AS and A-level Year 1)

Specialties

Chunking

Chunking Exercise

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