The pointer-link explanation provides a good basis for understanding how shortterm memory and long-term memory interact. However, this explanation is almost certainly a dramatic simplification of exactly what’s taking place in your head.
Chunking To test your short-term memory, try remembering the following sequence of numbers: 8
1
9
6
5
0
2
0
1
8
5
3
3
5
Give yourself a few seconds and then try to copy the list onto a sheet of paper. You’re unlikely to get the whole sequence, but you’ll probably surpass the lowest estimates of short-term memory (four or five numbers). If you do particularly well, it’s because you’re using some form of chunking to compress a meaningless series of digits into more concise, and possibly more meaningful, information. For example, try remembering these digits: 8
1965
0
2018
5335
Even though the sequence of numbers is the same, this grouping arrangement is easier to remember. It includes 2 years (1965 and 2018), which reduces eight digits to two chunks. If you try to remember the sequence now, you’ll probably have a far easier time. This strategy underlies telephone numbers, which are broken into groups using spaces, parentheses, and dashes to make them chunkier. This chunking strategy works even better if you can draw on additional information. For example, if 1965 lives in your memory as the year The Sound of Music was released, you can store in your head a single chunk that says “Sound of Music release date.” Then, when you retrieve that chunk from your short-term memory, you’ll automatically be able to pull the four numbers (1-9-6-5) out of your long-term memory. A similar trick is to use visual imagery. For example, you can see the final four numbers 5335, as the word SEES written with block digital numbers.
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Chapter 5