It is frequently stated in intro texts books that chunking can increase
the capacity of STM.
But isn't there research that would support the idea that th size of the
item in STM affects the capacity of STM? While 7+/-2 works fine with
numbers of one syllable, if the numbers given to a subject were longer
(e.g., 178, 438, etc) what can be retained in STM drops.
One of my high school students pointed this out to me after viewing a
video that contained a filme clip of a subject demonstrating the effect of
word length on STM capacity. He wondered if the notion of chunking should
be discarded.
