PSYCHOLOGY
psychology
memory
limits
brain
Miller's Law: The Magic Number 7
The average human can hold 7 ± 2 objects in working memory. This implies a hard limit on our cognitive processing capacity.
George Miller• 5 min read
Chunking
Try to remember: M Y C A T I S B I G. (10 letters, hard). Now try: MY CAT IS BIG. (4 words, easy). This is Chunking. We break information into chunks to bypass the limit.
Simplicity
If you give someone 10 instructions, they will forget the first 3. Keep it simple. Respect the limit.