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Subject:RE: The Myth of Seven, Plus or Minus Two From:"Jim Shaeffer" <jims -at- spsi -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 3 Dec 2003 09:31:36 -0500
Well said, Eric (see below) ..
But if I'm scannning a list of 100 links on a page looking for the one
that may serve my needs, how many do I have to keep in my short term
memory as "ones I need to go back and click on" or as "the links I need
to prioritize for my purposes"?
If the links are adequately described, then we are talking about "a
person's capacity to comprehend printed text," but the article seems to
be talking about the "limit for immediate recall" when faced with
several dozen cryptic menu choices.
Jim Shaeffer (jims -at- spsi -dot- com)
>From the original message:
> The problems are that this subject has been beaten to death a
> thousand times
> (http://members.shaw.ca/philip.sharman/myth.html) and that
> Miller himself isn't a big supporter of many of the ways
> that his work was interpreted.
> (http://members.shaw.ca/philip.sharman/miller.txt)
>
> "7 was a limit for the discrimination of unidimensional
> stimuli (pitches, loudness, brightness, etc.) and also a limit
> for immediate recall, neitherof which has anything to do with
> a person's capacity to comprehend printed text."
>
> It's not a question that the research no longer applies. It
> never applied in the first place.
>
> Einstein said it best: "Things should be made as simple as
> possible, but not any simpler."
>
> Eric L. Dunn
> Senior Technical Writer
>
>
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