Up to the magical number seven: An evolutionary perspective on the capacity of short term memory

Abstract

Working memory and its components are among the most determinant factors in human cognition. However, in spite of their critical importance, many aspects of their evolution remain underinvestigated. The present study is devoted to reviewing the literature of memory studies from an evolutionary, comparative perspective, focusing particularly on short term memory capacity. The findings suggest the limited capacity to be the common attribute of different species of birds and mammals. Moreover, the results imply an increasing trend of capacity from our non-human ancestors to modern humans. The present evidence shows that non-human mammals and birds, regardless of their limitations, are capable of performing memory strategies, although there seem to be some differences between their ability and that of humans in terms of flexibility and efficiency. These findings have several implications relevant to the psychology of memory and cognition, and are likely to explain differences between higher cognitive abilities of humans and non-humans. The adaptive benefits of the limited capacity and the reasons for the growing trend found in the present study are broadly discussed.

K-clique percolation in free association networks and the possible mechanism behind the $$7 \pm 2$$ law

“…Second, we can assume that the particular evolutionary rules (see, 37 for a review) for the corresponding network dynamically bring it to the particular capacity limit somewhat in the spirit of self-organized criticality. In the previous Section, we have supported this possibility suggesting the non-conventional version of the preferential attachment procedure which indeed yields the reasonable value of .…”

“…It would be interesting to elaborate the possible origin of the actual value further. Presumably, it can be established evolutionarily 37 as an optimal result of competition between the clique percolation related to the working memory and another properties of the connectome responsible for important cognitive properties. Another possibility demonstrated in our study is that the specific version of the preferential attachment evolution mechanism yields the critical value via a kind of self-organized criticality.…”

K-clique percolation in free association networks. The mechanism behind the $7 \pm 2 $ law ?

“…It would be interesting to elaborate further the possible origin of k c actual value. Presumably it can be established evolutionary [36] as a optimal result of competition between the clique percolation related to the working memory and another properties of the connectome responsible for important cognitive properties. Another possibility demonstrated in our study is that the specific version of the preferential attachment evolution mechanism yields the critical value k c = (5 − 6) via a kind of self-organized criticalily.…”

“…Secondly, we could assume that the particular evolutionary rules (see, [36] for the review) for the corresponding network dynamically bring it to the particular capacity limit somewhat in the spirit of self-organized criticality. In the previous Section we have supported this possibility suggesting the non-conventional version of the preferential attachment procedure which indeed yields the reasonable value of k c = (5 − 6).…”

Vestibular cognition assessment system: Tablet-based computerized visuospatial abilities test battery

“…The test uses simulation teaching to help beginners better understand the rules and methods of the test. The American psychologist, George A. Miller, proposed that the maximum capacity of short-term memory lies between 5 and 9 items (Manoochehri, 2021). Based on this hypothesis, the longest span of the weeding game was set to nine in this study.…”