The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
Imagine you have a box of marbles and you want to count them. You could probably count them up to 9, 10, or 11 marbles without any trouble. But what if you had 20 marbles, or even 100? Counting that many marbles might be too much for your brain to handle.
The same thing happens when people try to remember things. Our brains can only hold a certain amount of information before it gets overwhelmed. This limit is called the magical number seven, plus or minus two.
This means that people can usually only remember between 5 to 9 things at once. So if you give a person a list of 10 things to remember, they might not be able to recall all of them later. But if you give them a list of 6 things, they are more likely to remember most of them.
Think of it like a backpack. Your brain has a certain size backpack, and you can only fit so many things inside before it gets too heavy to carry comfortably. The magical number seven, plus or minus two is like the number of things that can fit in your backpack without it getting too heavy.
So the next time you try to remember a phone number, a shopping list, or a series of instructions, remember the magical number seven, plus or minus two. And don't overload your backpack!
The same thing happens when people try to remember things. Our brains can only hold a certain amount of information before it gets overwhelmed. This limit is called the magical number seven, plus or minus two.
This means that people can usually only remember between 5 to 9 things at once. So if you give a person a list of 10 things to remember, they might not be able to recall all of them later. But if you give them a list of 6 things, they are more likely to remember most of them.
Think of it like a backpack. Your brain has a certain size backpack, and you can only fit so many things inside before it gets too heavy to carry comfortably. The magical number seven, plus or minus two is like the number of things that can fit in your backpack without it getting too heavy.
So the next time you try to remember a phone number, a shopping list, or a series of instructions, remember the magical number seven, plus or minus two. And don't overload your backpack!
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