Information and the memory span

Abstract

Messages differing in number of symbols and symbol information load were presented tachistoscopically to 4 adult Ss. The messages were constructed by random drawing with replacement from an alphabet of 8 black form symbols and an alphabet of 32 colored form symbols. The number of symbols recalled varied as a function of alphabet; however, the information in recall was constant for all conditions. The number of symbols recalled and the information in recall was independent of message length.

The span of apprehension: Form Identification as a function of amount of information displayed

“…These data do, however, seem compatible with Neisser's (1963) measures of perceptual speed. Hyman and Kaufman (1966) have obtained effects of displayed information upon form identification that are more in accord with the findings of RT studies, but it appears likely that this result depends upon certain aspects of the response conditions in their study.…”

New Physiological Biometrics Based on Human Cognitive Factors

“…For visual information, the short-term memory is estimated to have a size of about 17 letters, and an average decay time of 200 ms [1]. Different researches have studied the retrieval capacity and capability from the short-term memory [13]. It was found that information retrieval capability from short-term and working memory is different from one person to the other.…”

Constancy in short-term memory: Bits and chunks.

“…More recently, however, Hyman and Kaufman (1966) have reopened the case for constancy of information. Presenting stimuli for brief intervals (up to 500 msec.…”

“…The-effects of explicit chunking on memory at very short exposure times are not so easy to predict. On the one hand, we have the empirical evidence (Glanzer & Fleishman, 1967;Hyman & Kaufman, 1966) that coding is ineffective in increasing memory span and the persuasive logical argument: since chunking takes time and at very short exposures the items to be chunked must be retrieved from memory (since they are not available from the preperceptual store or visual buffer), then the number of items, encoded in chunks, which can be stored in memory cannot exceed the number of uncoded items which were in memory to begin with.…”