The Devil's Dictionary and repetition

Alice Faber faber at POP.HASKINS.YALE.EDU
Thu Jan 20 19:32:17 UTC 2000


>I believe it's David McNeill who wrote about "The magic number 7, plus or
>minus 2" (I don't have the exact citation on hand).
>
>At 12:11 PM 1/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>That statement does not jibe with other learning theories.  If something is
>>introduced in a meaningful way, once is enough, particularly for a person
>>with a genius IQ.  As for the number 7, I've heard that the average person
>>can easily remember number patterns up to a maximum of 7 (telephone numbers),
>>after which recall becomes more difficult.

Nope. It was George Miller.

Miller, G.A. 1956. The magical number seven plus or minus two, or, some
limits on our capacity for processing information. _Psychological Review_
63.81-96.

Alice Faber



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