Posted on 07/12/2007 9:27:19 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
WASHINGTON: Psychologists that the University of Oregon say that the capacity of short-term memory is a strong predictor of an individual's IQ level and scholastic achievement.
A study conducted by them has shown that an average person can think only about four items at a time, but people with high IQ levels can remember more articles.
Professor Edward Awh and Professor Edward Vogel of the university conducted laboratory experiments to test their hypothesis that the memory capacity might be influenced by the complexity of items being stored, something that might cause a four-item limit for most people.
The study showed that even when very complex objects had to be remembered, the participants who ranged in age from 18 to 30 years still were able to hold four items in active memory. However, the clarity of those items was not perfect, points out Professor Awh.
It was also found that some people had much clearer memories than others.
"While it seems reasonable that people who think about more things at once might also have clearer memories than average, we found that this assumption was not the case," Professor Vogel said.
Professor Awh, the lead author of the study published in the journal Psychological Science, also says that the same people who can remember a lot of objects at one time do not necessarily have clearer memories of those objects.
"Knowing the number of things a person can remember tells you nothing about how clear a person’s memory may be," said Professor Awh.
"So even though people with high IQs can think about more things at once, there are not guarantees about how good those memories might be," the researcher added.
Does that include a phone number?
What happens of you have more than four children?
Does what include a phone number?
(jk)
70% of people believe they are above average intelligence.
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Informationfrom 1956 by George Miller
They're easier to keep track of than more than four wives...
I think this means that if you have more than 4, you will only remember four and not that clearly, and you may not know exactly how many children you have but their names will always be changing depending which 4 you are remembering at that time.
So, to be safe, stop at 3.
I know 236 things. I try not to think about any of them.
Seven plus, or minus two.
And SEX is three of them, at least for many males! ;-P
Eventually you do what most parents in such situations do: call the kid the first of the several names that comes to mind.
Just saying.
Lol :)
Sex, sex, beer, and sex.
Yep. Four things.
john, paul, george, ringo, and pete best. there, I beat it.
The last time I did this while posting on FR,watching T.V. drinking a beer and having a smoke it didn't go so well.
The next thing I knew the spelling police were after me, the porch was on fire, the main character got killed (By who I don't know) and I was drunk.
This just shows how subjective and difficult "intelligence" is to define. Einstein was notoriously absent minded and often forget when he set down something that was in his hand minutes ago. His weak abilities at rote memorization helped him flunk his college entrance exams. But....once he got a subject down his incredible imagination and intuition took him to wonderous hights. Many consider him the most "intelligent" person of the 20th Century. In reponse to this Einstein retorted that "imagination is much more important than intelligence."
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