"In cognitive psychology, chunking is a process by which small individual pieces of a set of information are bound together to create a meaningful whole later on in memory."
The process of grouping information into meaningful units to aid in memory recall.
Working memory: The ability to hold and manipulate information in the mind for short periods of time.
Long-term memory: The retention of information over an extended period of time.
Encoding: The process of transforming information into a form that can be stored in memory.
Retrieval: The process of accessing information from memory.
Cognitive load: The amount of mental effort required to complete a task.
Attention: The ability to focus on specific information while disregarding other information.
Mnemonics: Strategies for improving memory, such as acronyms, visual imagery, and association.
Chunking strategies: Techniques for organizing information into smaller, more manageable chunks.
Hierarchical organization: The organization of information into a hierarchy based on levels of importance.
Spacing effect: The idea that information is better retained when it is repeated over time with intervals between each repetition.
Recency effect: The tendency to remember the most recently presented information.
Primacy effect: The tendency to remember the first presented information.
Repetition: The process of reviewing information multiple times to improve retention.
Interference: The phenomenon where similar information can interfere with the ability to retain and recall specific information.
Reconstruction: The process of reconstructing memories based on incomplete or inaccurate information.
Metacognition: The ability to monitor and evaluate one's own thinking and memory processes.
Automaticity: The ability to perform tasks without conscious awareness or effort.
Practice effect: The improvement in retention and recall of information that comes with repeated practice.
Extinction: The weakening or disappearance of a memory due to lack of use or reinforcement.
Association: Connections or links between two pieces of information.
Procedural Chunking: This type of chunking refers to the process of breaking down complex sequences of motor actions into smaller, more manageable units. For example, learning to ride a bike involves memorizing a series of motor actions like pedaling, balancing, steering, and braking.
Perceptual Chunking: This type of chunking involves grouping together smaller sensory inputs into larger, meaningful units. For example, we might perceive a sequence of numbers as three groups (e.g., 182-659-2435) rather than ten individual digits.
Semantic Chunking: This type of chunking involves grouping together pieces of information based on their meaning or association with one another. For example, we might group together the words "dog," "cat," and "hamster" as belonging to the category of "pets.".
"The chunks, by which the information is grouped, are meant to improve short-term retention of the material, thus bypassing the limited capacity of working memory and allowing the working memory to be more efficient."
"A chunk is a collection of basic units that are strongly associated with one another, and have been grouped together and stored in a person's memory."
"The items are more easily remembered as a group than as the individual items themselves."
"The size of the chunks generally ranges from two to six items but often differs based on language and culture."
"According to Johnson (1970), there are four main concepts associated with the memory process of chunking: chunk, memory code, decode and recode."
"The chunk, as mentioned prior, is a sequence of to-be-remembered information that can be composed of adjacent terms."
"The process of recoding is where one learns the code for a chunk."
"Decoding is when the code is translated into the information that it represents."
"The phenomenon of chunking as a memory mechanism is easily observed in the way individuals group numbers, and information, in day-to-day life."
"For example, when recalling a number such as 12101946, if numbers are grouped as 12, 10, and 1946, a mnemonic is created for this number as a month, day, and year."
"Instead of remembering 10 separate digits that are beyond the putative 'seven plus-or-minus two' memory span, we are remembering four groups of numbers."
"An entire chunk can also be remembered simply by storing the beginnings of a chunk in the working memory, resulting in the long-term memory recovering the remainder of the chunk."
"The chunks, by which the information is grouped, are meant to improve short-term retention of the material."
"The chunks... allow the working memory to be more efficient."
"These chunks can be highly subjective because they rely on an individual's perceptions and past experiences, which are linked to the information set."
"These chunks can be retrieved easily due to their coherent grouping."
"It is believed that individuals create higher-order cognitive representations of the items within the chunk."
"The size of the chunks generally ranges from two to six items but often differs based on language and culture."
"The chunks, by which the information is grouped, are meant to improve short-term retention of the material."