The Magical Number Seven

There is a limit to the number of ideas you can comprehend at any one time. For example, think of deciding to leave your warm, comfortable living room to buy a newspaper. "I think I'll go out and get the paper," you say to your wife. "Is there anything you want while I'm out?"

"Gosh, I have such a taste for grapes after all those ads on television," she says as you walk toward the closet to get your coat, '~md maybe you ought to get some more milk."

You take your coat from the closet as she walks into the kitchen.

"Let me look in the cupboard to see if we have enough potatoes and, oh yes, I know we're out of eggs. Let me see, yes, we do need potatoes."

You put on your coat and walk toward the door.

"Carrots and maybe some oranges."

You open the door.

"Butter."

You walk down the stairs.

''Apples."

You get into the car:

''And sour cream."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, dear, thank you."

Now; without reading the passage over, can you remember any of the nine items your wife asked you to buy? Most men come back with the newspaper and the grapes.

The major problem is that you've run into the magical number seven. This is a phrase coined by George A. Miller in his treatise, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two."¹· What he points out is that the mind cannot hold more than about seven items in its short-term memory at any one time. Some minds can hold as many as nine items, while others can hold only five (I'm a five myself). A convenient number is three, but of course the easiest number is one.

What this means is that when the mind sees the number of items with which it is being presented begin to rise above four or five, it starts to group them into logical categories so that they can be retained. In this case, it would probably put the items into categories that reflect the sections of the supermarket you would need to visit.

To demonstrate how this helps, read the list below and categorize each idea in this way as you come to it. You will very likely find that you remember them all.

If you try to visualize this process, you will see that you have created a set of pyramids of logically related items.

¹ Mille, George A The psychology of Communication: Seven Essays (Basic Books: Pa.) -1967.