So, here's what's running through my mind. Do I want to develop more "reasonable sized" chucks to understand a complex topic or do i want to develop fewer "mega-chunks?" Mega-chunks may may it easier for me to understand something but harder to explain it to others. More reasonable-chunks may make it easier to explain my understanding but might it overload my memory? Can you dig into the granularity of chunks? Or is that not an issue?
Good question, Bill. Just to be clear, my understanding is that chunks develop automatically without conscious effort. They are a by-product of experience, practice, and expertise.
What I think you're describing is a situation where mega-chunks (to use your parlance) interfere with your ability to explain something to others. And this is a real phenomenon: the Curse of Knowledge. Experts have mega-chunks that are a compression of years of experience that becomes a concept in the mind that doesn't require a lot of working memory.
Often, to communicate to novices, those mega chunks have to be decompressed and presented in a way that develops new chunks in others. This requires awareness and effort, and is often forgotten.
I think the key is to think about your audience and remember that their working memory is always active and trying to use resources efficiently. If what you present is confusing or poorly presented, their working memory can get used up by simply trying to comprehend what you're saying/presenting. When it's used up, new chunks are less likely to form. On the other hand, if you simplify and remove the extraneous load, they have free cognitive resources that can be used for developing new chunks.
So, here's what's running through my mind. Do I want to develop more "reasonable sized" chucks to understand a complex topic or do i want to develop fewer "mega-chunks?" Mega-chunks may may it easier for me to understand something but harder to explain it to others. More reasonable-chunks may make it easier to explain my understanding but might it overload my memory? Can you dig into the granularity of chunks? Or is that not an issue?
Good question, Bill. Just to be clear, my understanding is that chunks develop automatically without conscious effort. They are a by-product of experience, practice, and expertise.
What I think you're describing is a situation where mega-chunks (to use your parlance) interfere with your ability to explain something to others. And this is a real phenomenon: the Curse of Knowledge. Experts have mega-chunks that are a compression of years of experience that becomes a concept in the mind that doesn't require a lot of working memory.
Often, to communicate to novices, those mega chunks have to be decompressed and presented in a way that develops new chunks in others. This requires awareness and effort, and is often forgotten.
I think the key is to think about your audience and remember that their working memory is always active and trying to use resources efficiently. If what you present is confusing or poorly presented, their working memory can get used up by simply trying to comprehend what you're saying/presenting. When it's used up, new chunks are less likely to form. On the other hand, if you simplify and remove the extraneous load, they have free cognitive resources that can be used for developing new chunks.
I hope this helps!