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tlklk t1_j2s1b5a wrote

Rule number 12 of 21: The average person can only keep 7 items in their working memory 🤔

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whattheydontsay t1_j2supyw wrote

It’s 3-5 things in active memory. Phone numbers and Social Security numbers are chunked into three sets for this reason. Give a user more than 3 sets of information at once and you risk them having a difficult time as their brain tries to assess priority. Also note that active memory is different than short term memory.

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deathgaze5 t1_j2u3a8m wrote

That explains why Netflix zoomed their web ui way the fuck in and wont let you zoom out

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IllegitimateLiteracy t1_j2t9yot wrote

People don't want to believe stuff like this but its incredibly well studied and true.

But people really want to believe that they can stare at a billion things at once like they're watching the code of the matrix and then Big Brain shit.

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TheLGMac t1_j2un8x6 wrote

The specific number 7 hasn’t actually been well studied or reinforced; rather, it’s the chunking aspect of Miller’s work that was salient.

This paper talks about how people just accepted the number seven as a given for forty years after Miller published and didn’t explore it further. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4486516/

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SvartholStjoernuson t1_j2u5ead wrote

“I spilled my water. This is really bad! I'm being electrocuted. I have to pull the plug before I die. Otherwise, I… I can't leave this room through that exit and meet Jolyne like I'm supposed to. I have something important to tell Jolyne. I got to go. She needs me. No matter what happens, I can't forget that! I have to get out of this room quickly!”

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redabishai t1_j2sant2 wrote

I've heard this is why phone numbers are 7 digits. Not sure how true that is.

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GreatAndPowerfulNixy t1_j2scnul wrote

They're 10 now

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manzanita2 t1_j2siggw wrote

except most people only need to deal with a few prefixes so those are usually "chunked" into one. I'd argue for 8 "things".

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chairfairy t1_j2t9fkm wrote

Before cell phones you didn't learn that many area codes, though. Because that would be a long distance call so for the most part you just learned the base 7 digits

^(867-5309)

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moonra_zk t1_j2sizw8 wrote

Phone number length is based on how many different numbers you need, that's why they added more digits over time.

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redabishai t1_j2skgje wrote

Of course. I remember in the 90s in New England they started using the area code for local calls.

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foospork t1_j2sr7a2 wrote

IIRC, the phone system was modified in the 90s to allow multiple area codes in one geographic area.

As late as the late 1970s, in some areas, if you were calling a different number in the same exchange, all you had to dial was the last 4 digits. For example, if your number was 555-1212 and you wanted to call 555-1234, all you had to dial was 1234.

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Dakar-A t1_j2sdd2r wrote

Doubtful. It's also chunks of information, not just pure units- you remember 695 432 0118 better than if I had asked you to recall 6, 9, 5, 4, 3, 2, 0, 1, 1, and 8.

Or if I asked you to remember "may boat horse" versus "a a b e h m o o r s t y"

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