Abstract : Why can we hold only about seven independent items in mind – the so called “magical number seven”?
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Abstract : Why can we hold only about seven independent items in mind – the so called “magical number seven”? Are our brains too small to do more at once? But perhaps our working memory capacity had to evolve small, because of something fundamental about how thinking works. Working memory may have to adjust its parameters of reference to time and space to different scales, depending on the cognitive task at hand. A related issue: while we are thinking, remembering, deciding what to do, exactly what are our brain waves doing? Can an understanding of harmonics help? And what topological patterns might underlie working memory activations of the cortex? This presentation summarizes these theoretical ideas as well as empirical research carried out at Lake Forest College, which suggests that working memory remains constant across many species, including humans, largely independently of brain size.- Slides
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