# Simon (1974): The Limits of Chunking

Simon (1974) carried out a span experiment in which the size of the chunks of information was varied.

Simon found that the number of chunks accurately recalled declined sharply as the size of the chunks increased. The participants could recall seven one-word chunks, as Miller (1957) suggested. However, if the chunks consisted of four words, participants could (on average) recall only one. This is contrary to Miller's original conclusion.

This shows that, even though chunking allows people to store more information at one time, STM capacity still has an overall limit

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