7 +/- 2 (was: Omitting Table and Figure Numbers)?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Andrea Brundt wonders: <<I'm having a hard time with "seven plus- or
minus-two items" idea applied to sentences.>>

The observation applies to pretty much anything that has to do with
short-term (working) memory. The trick (and it's a difficult one) is to
decide what constitutes an item of information and thus, what counts towards
the total of 7 items. For example, a phone number without its area code can
be considered 7 items (the 7 individual digits) or 2 items (a 3-digit number
plus a 4-digit number). Moreover, certain tricks (e.g., rhyming the numbers)
can make them easier to remember. So you have to treat the actual number 7
with considerable skepticism. Nonetheless, it provides an excellent design
guideline:

<<unless someone can prove that those 7 "items" can be anything more complex
than A-Z or 0-9, shouldn't we leave the 7+/-2
criterion out of our writing decisions?>>

The real point is simple and unassailable: the more items you require
someone to remember, the more difficult it will be for them to remember
those items. In this specific case (including the figure/table title), it's
clear that adding the title imposes more of a burden on the reader. If that
burden is compensated for by providing a tangible benefit, then it's an
acceptable increase in complexity. In this case, the title adds no
significant benefit over the figure number alone, and thus should be
dropped.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite
of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."--Niels Bohr,
physicist (1885-1962)