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- Vol 1 RE: Chapters 2, 4, App A, App B
short-term memory capacityworking memory chunksrehearsalsensory persistenceoutput interferencelong-term memorycapacity variabilityJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Cowan reconsiders Miller’s famous seven-item estimate and argues that the capacity of a central short-term store is closer to four chunks in adults.
Key ideas
The review separates this core limit from processes that can inflate or depress observed span, including rehearsal, grouping, long-term-memory knowledge, sensory persistence, and output interference. Evidence is drawn from several paradigms—brief visual arrays, running spans, unattended speech, recall of unrelated materials, and tasks designed to restrict recoding. Converging estimates often fall near three to five meaningful units when auxiliary strategies are controlled. Cowan treats the proposal as a useful empirical generalisation rather than an invariant ceiling: capacity varies across people, ages, materials, and conditions, and defining a chunk is itself difficult.
Why it matters
For education, the paper cautions against literal “four-item” prescriptions while supporting designs that manage simultaneous information, build schemas that permit chunking, minimise irrelevant load, and give learners opportunities to rehearse, retrieve, and integrate new elements.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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