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7.4.3. Classification: Short-term Memory

How To Invent (Almost) Anything > 7. How The Brain Works > 7.4. Classification: Making Sense of the World > 7.4.3. Classification: Short-term Memory

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Our short-term memory contains about seven ‘slots’ each of which can contain one chunk of understanding. Items in these slots have very low lifespan: have you ever been introduced to a person and then forgotten their name moments later?

Short-term memory is primarily verbal and phonological, where each chunk is represented by a sounded word. This has been shown by experiments where short-term tasks have resulted in confusion, for example between ‘pear’ and ‘fair,’ but not between ‘pear’ and ‘peach.’

When we are dealing with new or complex concepts, short-term memory very quickly becomes overloaded with details that we have not yet learned to combine into larger chunks. We often do not realise this when we are describing new ideas to others: these people cannot yet handle the ideas as single chunks and so must break them down into more fundamental components, only a few of which can be processed at one time.

Other parts in this section:

• 7.4.1. Classification: Chunking the World
• 7.4.2. Classification: Languaging Chunks
• 7.4.3. Classification: Short-term Memory
• 7.4.4. Classification: Long-term Memory
• 7.4.5. Classification: Class-ification
• 7.4.6. Classification: Rapid Classification
• 7.4.7. Classification: Big Patterns: Mental Models

The other sections in this chapter:

• 7.1. A Quick History of Brain Science
• 7.2. The Real Parts of the Brain
• 7.3. How We Think: Patterns of the Mind
• 7.4. Classification: Making Sense of the World
• 7.5. Association: Just Like That
• 7.6. Invention 'So What?'

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