The Magical number 7
As humans, we have a limited capacity to consider our alternatives.
Within our brains, there is a limited amount of shelf space available for us to temporarily put our options on to examine them and make our decision. We have cognitive limits to the amount of information we can process at any given time. When it comes to memory capacity, it seems that the limit for humans is seven, plus or minus two. This comes from a 1956 paper by cognitive psychologist George A. Miller called The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two. He referred to it as channel capacity, the number of cognitive and perceptual tasks we can successfully undertake as humans. It seems that we come with a predetermined number of “slots” available for us to temporarily swap in items that we wish to consider.
