Re. 7 plus or minus 2

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 Forwarded by request:

 Miller's original research was not just on short-term
 retention of phone numbers, but on short-term retention of
 chunks of information in general.  (The phone-number
 example is most often cited, though it's culturally biased:
 British phone numbers are eight digits!)  The theory says
 that you can remember about seven chunks of any sort of
 information: hence, it is widely applicable, even to steps
 in a process, bulleted items in a list, or topics in a
 chapter.  This phenomenon has indeed been observed outside
 the domain of numbers; I suggest you look at any book by
 Professor Ben Schneiderman for more examples.

 I have taught classes on user-interface design, and my own
 example is that the principal cast of a television show is
 effectively limited to seven, because if it gets larger
 than that viewers can't remember the eighth cast member,
 who loses air time and eventually leaves, viz.: You can
 name the seven castaways on "Gilligan's Island," but not
 the dozen or so on "Hill Street Blues."  Also, Denise
 Crosby left the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"
 because she fell to eighth in the pecking order.  (I feel
 compelled to report that the principal instructor, who in
 truth was far more qualified than I, went visibly nuts when
 I brought this up, but it's my example and I'm sticking
 with it 8^)

 Please feel free to post this response to TECHWR-L.  I
 would do it myself, but I have had trouble posting directly
 for some time now.

 -- Steve

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