“Something that your mind thinks of as one unit, even if it’s in fact a cluster of things.”
The “Go to the store” is four words. But “go” actually means “stand up. walk to the door. open the door. Walk to your car. Open your car door. Get inside. Take the key out of your pocket. Put the key in the ignition slot...” etc. (Which are in turn actually broken into smaller steps like “lift your front leg up while adjusting your weight forward”)
But, you are capable of taking all of that an chunking it as the concept “go somewhere” (as as well as the meta concept of “go to the place whichever way is most convenient, which might be walking or biking or taking a bus”), although if you have to use a form of transport you are less familiar with, remembering how to do it might take up a lot of working memory slots, leaving you liable to forget other parts of your plan.
I think the near-synonym nature is more about convergent evolution. (i.e. words aim to be reflect a concept, working memory is about handling concepts).
What is meant by 7 chunks? seems like that in itself was condensed jargon that i didn’t understand :P
“Something that your mind thinks of as one unit, even if it’s in fact a cluster of things.”
The “Go to the store” is four words. But “go” actually means “stand up. walk to the door. open the door. Walk to your car. Open your car door. Get inside. Take the key out of your pocket. Put the key in the ignition slot...” etc. (Which are in turn actually broken into smaller steps like “lift your front leg up while adjusting your weight forward”)
But, you are capable of taking all of that an chunking it as the concept “go somewhere” (as as well as the meta concept of “go to the place whichever way is most convenient, which might be walking or biking or taking a bus”), although if you have to use a form of transport you are less familiar with, remembering how to do it might take up a lot of working memory slots, leaving you liable to forget other parts of your plan.
So “7 chunks” was used as almost a synonym for “7 words”? I thought that was some cool concept from neuroscience about working memory :)
I think the near-synonym nature is more about convergent evolution. (i.e. words aim to be reflect a concept, working memory is about handling concepts).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory