Skip to main content

Miller's Seven Plus or Minus Two

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Miller reported that short-term memory holds between five and nine items, which he called the magic number seven plus or minus two.

Show

In Miller's studies, participants repeated back seven digits reliably and failed at ten.

Watch for

Miller's estimate was for items as commonly presented. What counts as an item is itself the variable.