Have you
ever tried to remember a very long number and that still resides in your head?
I'm sure that might be a challenge in doing so!. Our brain works really hard to
memorize certain things like remembering the huge and long information unless
we practice a number of times or try to note down somewhere.
Why our brain is so snoozed at memorizing extensive things?
Here are a few clarifications about our brain, how it is really going to
work. Firstly, our brain consists of Long-Term Memory & Short-Term (Working)
Memory. Now let us know, how exactly the human brain going to work on retaining
memory. Basically memories are stored as the minute chemical changes at the
connection points between neurons in the brain and this connection point is
called as Synapses.
These
fragments (synapses) responsible for storing and transmitting the information.
The parts of the brain that receive these electric impulses are dendrites.
Through this information or electrical impulses flow through the neural network
of the brain. By this activity of the neurons, which in turn causes these
connection points (synapses) to become stronger or weaker in response.
This
process of strengthening, and weakening of synapses is how exactly the brain
stores the information. And to have an exceptional memory, you may need to go
through such flow of connections eminently, which in turn that it could be in
that kind of process through neural networks. If the information has processed
in this pattern for several times by creating a tracing a mark, that
information could dwell permanently in our brain. In fact, in turn doing it, we
are actually pushing information further from Short-Term memory to Long-Term
memory. By doing so, we are indeed storing information as a memory.
Short-term
memory is an essential step toward the next stage of retention for long-term
memory. The effort taken to push information from Short-Term memory to
Long-Term memory is a procedure, this is how the first information has to be
stored in Short-Term memory.
It can only
hold a little amount of information (typically around 7 elements or even less
than that) in our mind, which is in turn a readily available and in the active
mode for a short period of time, ranging between 10 to 15 seconds, or at max of
one minute. Now the biggest challenge is how we can achieve it. Chunking is one
of the methods which help us to retain the information in the brain.
What's chunking or chunking psychology then?
Chunking is
the sequence of materials into shorter meaningful groups to make them further
manageable. For example, a hyphenated phone number, split into groups of 3 or 4
digits, tends to be easier to remember than a single long number.
The maximum
number of chunks that can be efficiently processed by short-term memory is
four, more or less. For example, most people can remember a list of five words
for 30 seconds, but few can remember only a list of ten words for 30 seconds.
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Method of Chunking
It is the
procedure of making more efficient use of short-term memory by grouping and
organizing the pieces of information together. This can be used precisely only
on the important information need to be chunked. If the short-term memory is
stocked up, the new information will just fade away.
When not to Chunk
Well,
Chunking is often applied as an ordinary technique to simplify method. This is
a probable misdeed of the principle. That's the way it can lead to make things
tough to scan. If the chunking is applied extensively, since the focus is on
the group of items and not the individual items themselves. However, if you
apply the concept in combination with other principles it can be used
effectively to make more grouping easier to process. The limitations specified
by this principle deal specifically with tasks involving memory. Chunk
information could be available, when people are required to recall and retain
the important information. And also when information is used for problem
solving. Do not chunk information that is to be searched or scanned.
So, Designer
needs to be smart enough while making decision wisely in chunking information.
About Author
Srinivas
Ramshetty is Ux evangelist and senior ux consultant at Intergraph. He played
multiple roles in the areas of Competency Building, Managing & Leading Ux
teams, User Research, User Interface Design, Interaction Design, Information
Architecture, Usability Testing and Analysis across multiple business verticals
while serving fortune 100 corporations. Srinivas is the certified Usability
Analyst from HFI and pursuing Masters in Psychology.
You can
connect him at https://in.linkedin.com/in/srinivasramshetty
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