Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study

Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by mromanuk on Monday June 11, 2018 @02:58PM (#17287325)

> In 1956, the renowned cognitive psychologist George Miller published one of the field’s most widely cited papers, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.” In it, he argued that although the brain can store a whole lifetime of knowledge in its trillions of connections, the number of items that humans can actively hold in their conscious awareness at once is limited, on average, to seven.

So, your mind can hold 4-5, not 7 things at the same time or it goes "out of sync"

edit: added quote.

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by bovermyer on Monday June 11, 2018 @03:22PM (#17287610)

This seems to agree with my own experiences. I've never been able to hold seven things in my head at once, it's definitely closer to the four number.

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by DiffEq on Monday June 11, 2018 @04:00PM (#17287992)

...and you may not be able to do a handstand. But if you learn the technique you can easily within a few weeks or less. Memory is no different. Learn the techniques recall and you will be able to remember more.

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by graeme on Monday June 11, 2018 @04:44PM (#17288412)

Do you have any evidences that this applies to short term working memory? That's what the article is about. The limit seems to be 3-7, and it's not clear that's malleable.

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by namibj on Monday June 11, 2018 @07:33PM (#17289524)

Well if I'm sober from a mental perspective, I can reverse >=11 digits if heard with a speed of 1~2 Hz.

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by graeme on Monday June 11, 2018 @08:39PM (#17289840)

Are you chunking them?

I don't really have a good sense of what that speed implies mind you.

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by osrec on Monday June 11, 2018 @09:24PM (#17290052)

I guess they meant 1 to 2 numbers said out loud per second

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by namibj on Monday June 11, 2018 @11:43PM (#17290555)

You are correct, and I can neither confirm nor deny your parents question, as I've been out of (mental) shape due to the time of day. I don't think I did, las time i tried.

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by lhuser123 on Monday June 11, 2018 @05:24PM (#17288736)

Yeah. The number 7 has always seems to me like an oversimplification. Applicable to specific cases.

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by perfmode on Monday June 11, 2018 @04:22PM (#17288195)

how does one begin to even delineate a “thing”?

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by azhenley on Monday June 11, 2018 @04:44PM (#17288404)

A great place to start reading about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunking_(psychology)

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by pmalynin on Monday June 11, 2018 @05:25PM (#17288737)

Oh man.

You should read Heidegger's The Thing.

[0] http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~ryanshaw/nmwg/the.thing-...

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by dredmorbius on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @04:12AM (#17291555)

Thanks, iteeresting, in a thingness sort of a way.

Found the scan annoying, transcribed to pandoc Markdown:

https://pastebin.com/raw/3HYkwASH

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Re:Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync: Study by wm_throwaway on Monday June 11, 2018 @06:29PM (#17289179)

Welsh.

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