Explain the space and time capacities of short-term memory, the effects of chunking and rehearsal on these capacities, and the best method for moving information from short-term into long-term memory

What will be an ideal response?

Answer will include that Psychologist George Miller found that short-term memory was
limited to the "magic number" 7 (plus or minus 2) information bits. A bit is a single meaningful
"piece" of information, such as a digit. It is as if short-term memory has 7 "slots" or "bins"
into which separate items can be placed. However, other psychologists believe that short-term
memory actually holds only four items, unless some chunking has occurred. Chunking is a
way to increase the space capacity of STM. Information chunks are made up of bits of
information grouped into larger units. Chunking recodes (reorganizes) information into units
that are already in LTM, such as the individual letters of "T V I B M Y M C A" could be
grouped into three familiar chunks of "TV," "IBM," and "YMCA.". Regarding the time
capacity of STM, we are consciously aware of short-term memories for only a dozen seconds
or so. Unless you rehearse it (silently say it over and over to yourself), information is quickly
"dumped" from STM and forever lost. This prevents our minds from storing useless names,
dates, telephone numbers, and other trivia. This maintenance rehearsal can prolong a memory
as long as the rehearsal continues; however, to move this information into long-term memory,
one must link this new information with memories that are already in long-term memory, a
process known as elaborative processing.