THE MAGICAL NUMBER 7 - STILL MAGIC AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

The ''magical number seven'' gives a beautifully clear account of information theory and demonstrates how the concept of limited channel capacity can be applied across a range of sensory dimensions. However, its major influence stems not from this but from the demonstration that immediate memory span is relatively insensitive to amount of information per item. In emphasizing the importance of the recoding of information and developing the concept of chunking, Miller set the agenda for the next phase of cognitive psychology in which information-processing concepts went beyond the confines of information theory. This article continues to be cited because these underlying ideas continue to be fruitful.