Chunking and the magical number seven#
One trait of working memory (a part of overall memory) is that it can
work with up to seven pieces of information at any one time. George A.
Miller, a psychologist, called this trait the “magical number seven,
plus or minus two.”
When you are creating associations (or indeed, working with any number
of items), try to group or chunk larger numbers of items into groups
of no more than seven items. It’s usually easier to remember a group of
three lists of five items than it is to remember a single list of
fifteen items.
Let’s look at a specific example for presentation training. On the left
is an unstructured list of points to remember for good
presentations. On the right is the same list
“chunked” into four groups.
| Unstructured | Chunked |
|---|
- Organize the presentation into Intro, Body, and Summary.
- Analyze what you did well and not so well afterwards.
- Understand your lead-in and who follows you.
- Breathe normally when presenting.
- Get to the location early and check out facilities.
- Do your research on the topic. Know it well.
- Keep your posture relaxed when presenting.
- Make eye contact with the audience when presenting.
- Ask someone to make notes on how well you perform.
- Make sure you have water available when presenting.
- Ask someone to take notes, and follow up with them after the presentation.
- Think about your audience and what they want to hear.
|
Prepare material
- Think about your audience and what they want to hear.
- Do your research on the topic. Know it well.
- Organize the presentation into Intro, Body, and Summary.
Prepare on the day
- Get to the location early and check out facilities.
- Make sure you have water available.
- Understand your lead-in and who follows you.
- Ask someone to make notes on how well you perform.
Present
- Keep your posture relaxed.
- Breathe normally.
- Make eye contact with the audience.
Review
- Follow up with the person you asked to take notes.
- Analyze what you did well and not so well.
|
Sometimes information is easy to group like this. Other times you may
just have to choose arbitrary dividing lines. You can use the principles
of association though to decide those dividing lines, the more creative
the better!
