Letter: Letters : Number nine

From John Wales

john_wales@hotmail.com

In his response to Feedback’s comment on the Cambridge dons
(15 November),
Nils Erik Grande asks “but why `ninthly’ in both cases?”.

I would suggest that the answer might lie in Miller’s magic number, 7 ± 2,
which gives limits to the maximum number of pieces of information that the human
brain can hold simultaneously in short-term memory.

Miller thus gives a range of 5 to 9, and I would assume that Cambridge (and
Oxford) dons are at the upper boundary—compared to mere mortals like me
who struggle at 5. So, the don in question has thought out his argument before
starting to talk, has all his points ranged neatly in short-term memory, and
ticks them off mentally as the discussion progresses. Thus, a limit of 9 is not
surprising.

See http://www.living-history.org/nc5talk/hrair.html for more
information on Miller’s magic number.