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LI GUOQI, NING NING, RAMANATHAN KIRUTHIKA, HE WEI, PAN LI, SHI LUPING. BEHIND THE MAGICAL NUMBERS: HIERARCHICAL CHUNKING AND THE HUMAN WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY. Int J Neural Syst 2013; 23:1350019. [DOI: 10.1142/s0129065713500196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
To explore the influence of chunking on the capacity limits of working memory, a model for chunking in sequential working memory is proposed, using hierarchical bidirectional inhibition-connected neural networks with winnerless competition. With the assumption of the existence of an upper bound to the inhibitory weights in neurobiological networks, it is shown that chunking increases the number of memorized items in working memory from the "magical number 7" to 16 items. The optimal number of chunks and the number of the memorized items in each chunk are the "magical number 4".
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Affiliation(s)
- GUOQI LI
- Data Storage Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, A*STAR, 5 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117608, Singapore
| | - NING NING
- Data Storage Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, A*STAR, 5 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117608, Singapore
| | - KIRUTHIKA RAMANATHAN
- Data Storage Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, A*STAR, 5 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117608, Singapore
| | - WEI HE
- Data Storage Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, A*STAR, 5 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117608, Singapore
| | - LI PAN
- Data Storage Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, A*STAR, 5 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117608, Singapore
| | - LUPING SHI
- Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China
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