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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Magic number 8+-6
Message-ID: <459@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 31-Oct-83 17:36:14 EST
Article-I.D.: dciem.459
Posted: Mon Oct 31 17:36:14 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Oct-83 18:51:56 EST
Organization: D.C.I.E.M, Toronto, Canada
Lines: 33

I was asked for the references to Jane Mackworth's work on Short Term
Memory in the 1960's relating to the magic number 8+-6. My reply follows:

=====

There are several papers by Jane F. Mackworth over the period 1962-66.
I think they have been unjustly neglected by subsequent researchers.
I won't give the full references here: just the journal page reference.

(CJP= Canadian Journal of Psychology)

CJP 16, 48-54, 1962
CJP 16, 120-127, 1962
CJP 16, 42-47, 1962
CJP 16, 55-59, 1962
CJP 17, 62-81, 1963
J.  Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 2, 75-85, 1963
CJP 18, 292-303, 1964
JVLVB (see above) 3, 300-308, 1964
CJP 19, 304-315, 1965
CJP 20, 18-33, 1966

I can't tell you which is most important, but I suggest you start with
the last (number 10) and then number 8. The references in those may
cue you as to which previous ones are most relevant.

I talked a lot with Mackworth about this work, but was never directly
involved. She had a theory about it based on processing resource sharing
that was probably ahead of its time, because she never got it published
(as far as I know).

Martin Taylor