Miller

Question 1

Who was Miller and what did he theorise?

Answer 1

He was an American psychologist who theorised that the mind works like a computer

Question 2

How much information can STM hold and how?

Answer 2

Can hold 7 plus or minus 2 pieces of information in chunks

Question 3

How did Miller contribute to the model?

Answer 3

STM stores “chunks” of information rather than individual numbers or letters
Explains why we can recall items like phone numbers which contain 11 digits
We chunk the information into groups
E.g. phone numbers- 07….368..607…972

Question 4

What did Millter help psychology move away from?

Answer 4

Behaviourist methods and was one of the founders of cognitive psychology

Question 5

Shift towards cognitive psychology?

Answer 5

Challenged behaviourist views by emphasising the importance of studying internal cognate processes e.g. memory and information processing

Question 6

What have Miller’s findings been applied to?

Answer 6

Education and learning strategies emphasising techniques like chunking to help students remember complex information

Question 7

Evaluation?

Answer 7

Concept of chunking is vague as peoples idea of a chunk can vary
Oversimplification of STM capacity- Miller said it was 7 plus or minus 2 but it is more like 4 plus or minus 1
Artificial and lab based