RE: References for "The Magic Number" and more examples of the number 7

[edunn -at- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com]

While this discussion ranks up there with the 'number of spaces after a period'
debate (that is currently raging on Framers, heaven help me), I feel I have to
speak up.
In a recent post, a supporter of the 7+/-2 lambasted the referenced articles and
posters that are against Miller's study as being without proof/study and of
being only personal opinions. After visiting the referenced web sites, I can say
this is patently untrue. The three web sites that have been referenced to
'debunk' Miller's study all seemed to be from the view point of learned people
with a grasp of the latest scientific study (not just a passing knowledge of one
1956 study). Unless someone can point out how the references are falsified, I
think the list (included below) speaks for itself.
Argue/discuss the merits of a position as much as you want. But to dismiss them
out of hand as unsupported when in fact they are is intellectually dishonest.
Besides, personal viewpoints amongst such an experienced group such as TECHWR-L
should carry at least as much weight as a study carried out in the early 50's.

Eric L. Dunn

References
1. Beebe-Center, J.G., Rogers, M.S., and O'Connell, D.N. Transmission of
information about sucrose and saline solutions through the sense of taste. J.
Psychol., 1955, 39, 157-160.
2. Bousfield, W.A., and Cohen, B.H. The occurrence of clustering in the recall
of randomly arranged words of different frequencies-of-usage. J. Gen. Psychol.,
1955, 52, 83-95.
3. Carmichael, L., Hogan, H.P., and Walter, A.A. An experimental study of the
effect of language on the reproduction of visually perceived form. J. Exp.
Psychol., 1932, 15, 73-86.
4. Chapman, D.W. Relative effects of determinate and indeterminate Aufgaben.
Amer. J. Psychol., 1932, 44, 163-174.
5. Eriksen, C.W. Multidimensional stimulus differences and accuracy of
discrimination. USAF, WADC Tech. Rep., 1954, No. 54-165.
6. Eriksen, C.W., and Hake, H.W. Absolute judgments as a function of the
stimulus range and the number of stimulus and response categories. J. Exp.
Psychol., 1955, 49, 323-332.
7. Garner, W.R. An informational analysis of absolute judgments of loudness. J.
Exp. Psychol., 1953, 46, 373-380.
8. Hake, H.W., and Garner, W.R. The effect of presenting various numbers of
discrete steps on scale reading accuracy. J. Exp. Psychol., 1951, 42, 358-366.
9. Halsey, R.M., and Chapanis, A. Chromaticity-confusion contours in a complex
viewing situation. J. Opt. Soc. Amer., 1954, 44, 442-454.
10. Hayes, J.R.M. Memory span for several vocabularies as a function of
vocabulary size. In Quarterly Progress Report, Cambridge, Mass.: Acoustics
Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jan.-June, 1952.
11. Jakobson, R., Fant, C.G.M., and Halle, M. Preliminaries to speech analysis.
Cambridge, Mass.: Acoustics Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
1952. (Tech. Rep. No. 13.).
12. Kaufman, E.L., Lord, M.W., Reese, T.W., and Volkmann, J. The discrimination
of visual number. Amer. J. Psychol., 1949, 62, 498-525.
13. Klemmer, E.T., and Frick, F.C. Assimilation of information from dot and
matrix patterns. J. Exp. Psychol., 1953, 45, 15-19.
14. Külpe, O. Versuche über Abstraktion. Ber. ü. d. I Kongr. f. Exper. Psychol.,
 1904, 56-68.
15. Miller, G.A., and Nicely, P.E. An analysis of perceptual confusions among
some English consonants. J. Acoust. Soc. Amer., 1955, 27, 338-352.
16. Pollack, I. The assimilation of sequentially encoded information. Amer. J.
Psychol., 1953, 66, 421-435.
17. Pollack, I. The information of elementary auditory displays. J. Acoust. Soc.
 Amer., 1952, 24, 745-749.
18. Pollack, I. The information of elementary auditory displays. II. J. Acoust.
Soc. Amer., 1953, 25, 765-769.
19. Pollack, I., and Ficks, L. Information of elementary multidimensional
auditory displays. J. Acoust. Soc. Amer., 1954, 26, 155-158.
20. Woodworth, R.S. Experimental psychology. New York: Holt, 1938.

REFERENCES
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References
Baddeley, A. (1992), Working memory, Science, 255, 556-559.
Broadbent, D.E. (1975), The magic number seven after fifteen years. In A.
Kennedy and A. Wilkes (eds.), Studies in Long-Term Memory, New York: Wiley,
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Journal of Experimental Psychology, 10, 12-21.
LeCompte, D. (1999), Seven, plus or minus two, is too much to bear: Three (or
fewer) is the real magic number, Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics
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MacGregor, J.N. (1987), Short-term memory capacity: Limitation or optimization?
Psychological Review, 94(1), 107-108.
Miller, G.A. (1956), The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on
 our capacity for processing information, The Psychological Review, 81-97.
Peterson, L.R. and Peterson, M.J. (1959), Short-term retention of individual
items, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 193-198.




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