George A. Miller
A pioneering cognitive psychologist known for his seminal paper 'The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two' on short-term memory capacity.
Quotes by George A. Miller
My problem is that I have been persecuted by an integer. For seven years this number has followed me around, has intruded in my most private data, and has assaulted me from the pages of our most public journals. This number, 7 ± 2, a quantity I can no longer believe, has appeared in my life with such a regularity that I have begun to suspect either a personal vendetta or a cosmic coincidence.
The capacity of short-term memory is about seven items.
Chunking is a recoding of information into larger, more meaningful units.
The most important thing to remember about 'The Magical Number Seven' is that it's not about seven items, it's about seven chunks.
Language is not a collection of words and rules, but a system for expressing and understanding thoughts.
The plan is the unit of analysis for understanding behavior.
A TOTE unit (Test-Operate-Test-Exit) is a basic feedback loop in cognitive processes.
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mind and mental processes.
The computer metaphor for the mind has been incredibly productive.
Psychology, after a long detour through behaviorism, has returned to its senses.
The goal of cognitive science is to understand the nature of intelligence.
Words are not things, but symbols for things.
The mental lexicon is a vast and intricate network of words and their meanings.
Meaning is not in words, but in the minds of those who use them.
The human mind is a symbol-processing system.
We are not passive recipients of information; we actively construct our understanding of the world.
The study of language is central to the study of mind.
Psychology is the science of what we know and how we know it.
The brain is not a general-purpose computer, but a collection of specialized modules.
The cognitive revolution was a return to the study of mental processes.