Final answer:
The capacity of short-term memory is commonly around 7 plus or minus 2 items, while more recent research indicates working memory capacity to be about 4 plus or minus 1. Employing strategies like chunking can help improve recall.
Step-by-step explanation:
When examining the capacity of short-term memory, research has revealed that most people can remember a number close to seven items, with a possible variation of plus or minus two. This concept was first introduced by George Miller in 1956. However, contemporary studies, such as those conducted by Cowan in 2010, suggest that the working memory capacity might be around four items, with a plus or minus one variation.
Strategies like chunking and rehearsal can enhance memory retention. Chunking allows you to group information into manageable units, making it easier to remember. For instance, breaking down a long string of digits into smaller segments, like a phone number, aids in recall.
Acoustic encoding, or the process of remembering information we hear, also tends to be more effective than visual encoding, which pertains to the information we see. Moreover, it has been observed that recall for random numbers is slightly better compared to random letters. Taking these findings into account, one could surmise that the number of items from a policy one is likely to remember would be within a similar range, particularly if chunking and rehearsal strategies are employed.