rba@allegra.UUCP (10/26/83)
The original citation for the magic number was: George A. Miller, The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 1956, 63, 81-97. This was updated a few years ago by Donald Broadbent, in an article which asserted that the processing limit was closer to five: D.E. Broadbent. The magical number seven after fifteen years. In A. Kennedy and A. Wilkes (Eds.) Studies in long term memory. Wiley: NY, 1975, 3-18. While most psychologists believe that there is some limit to short-term memory, almost no serious researcher takes either of the magic numbers literally. (Although there have been many jokes about the decline in intelligence -- because the magic number dropped from 7 to 5. And, there have been other jokes about continuing the series of magic numbers 7,5,3,1,-1...) Indeed, I've heard rumors that not even George Miller takes it literally these days. In any case, as has been pointed out, even if there were a magic number for STM it isn't clear how that should be related to the number of items on a distribution list. Bob Allen, allegra!rba, BTL-CSO