Miller (1956)

‘The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two’

Aim: To investigate the capacity of short-term memory (STM).

Method: Miller reviewed studies published between the 1930s and 1950s that investigated perception and STM.

Results: Miller found that:

• organising information into chunks enabled STM to hold approximately seven chunks

• more than seven individual digits, words, or musical notes could be remembered if they were organised into chunks

For example, an 11-digit telephone number could be divided into four groups: 07678, 194, 534. This means that only three chunks need to be remembered rather than 11 individual digits.

Conclusion: Miller concluded that organising information into chunks can extend the capacity of STM, enabling more information to be stored.