I’ve noticed that when we give information that has lots of syllables or things in it, we tend to pronounce these things 3 at a time. I’ll give an example that we have given to technology.
Eg. I asked my google home to help me spell the word ‘necessary’. It went “N-E-C… E-S-S… A-R-Y”
Another example could be a phone number: “1122…. 333…. 444…” where the first 4 numbers are said in one go, where the rest is compressed into the 3 pattern.
Anyone know why this is?
In: Biology
I have no explanation but I would tend to believe that it depends on your culture. I would say that in France we group the figures by two, like our telephone numbers: 01 23 45 67 89
Your working memory, this is where information comes before it’s in your short and long term memory and where you hold info you are currently using, is limited. It can hold 4-7 things or ‘chunks’ at a time, so 4 number when you try to remember a phone number. But that’s where the magic comes: when you combine things, it’s still a chunk! So 0-9-3-6-7-3-6-5 are 8 chunks but 093-673-65 are only 3 chunks. I think a chunk of 3 letters/words/numbers is easier, because otherwise the chunks become to big and you run into capacity problems. I don’t know if it’s always 3, but it’s not to big and not to little.
It’s also easier to hold/remember more information when it’s meaningfull, processed easier or familiar. For example words that rhyme or belong to the same category or 456 vs 604.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2864034/ this is an interesting article about it!
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