Question

The magical number seven plus or minus 2 refers to the storage capacity of which memory?

1) Short-term memory
2) Long-term memory
3) Cache memory
4) Virtual memory

Answer 1

The magical number seven plus or minus two refers to the storage capacity of short-term memory, indicating that most people can hold between 5 to 9 items in this memory stage at once, as proposed by George Miller in his 1956 study.

Step-by-step explanation:

The phrase "the magical number seven, plus or minus two" refers to the storage capacity of short-term memory. This concept was introduced by psychologist George Miller in 1956, after reviewing research on memory capacity. His findings suggested that most people are able to hold between 5 to 9 items, such as digits or letters, in their short-term memory at any given time.

The idea is that short-term memory acts as a kind of temporary holding space for information that is currently being processed. It's like the information displayed on a computer screen that can be easily accessed but is lost unless saved to long-term memory. It is important to note more recent research by Cowan in 2010, which suggests that the capacity for what is now often referred to as working memory might actually be slightly lower, closer to 4 plus or minus 1 items.