We Think In Chunks: Video Explainer
Understand the science behind a fundamental idea in cognitive science
Friends, we are in a new phase of this project. We’ve moved from perceptions that happen in milliseconds (system 1 - attention, context, gist) to information being processed by the mind (system 2 - working memory, cognitive load, etc.).
The driving question: what does it take for an idea to be remembered in the future? As you’ll see below, our minds evolved efficient ways to store incredible amounts of information in small packages.
This is a short post. Be sure to watch the video at the bottom.
Chunks and Working Memory
Working memory, as I discussed recently, has hard limits. We can remember about four items at a time without making predictable mistakes. Beyond 4-5 items, our memory becomes unreliable.
But here’s the thing… working memory is flexible. As we learn and develop expertise, our minds become more efficient. We automatically compress related information into a single package, or “chunk,” that’s easier to store and retrieve.
When learning to drive a car, it seems like a group of individual parts: steering, acceleration, braking, parking. But with experience, the parts become compressed into a single idea, or chunk, we call “driving” that’s easier to access in the future. Driving only takes up one part of working memory. This is why we can drive and have a conversation at the same time.
Chunking Machines and Expertise
In the background, our minds are chunking machines, constantly recognizing related ideas and chunking them into more efficient packages. Once something like “weather” or “shopping” becomes a chunk, it takes up less space in working memory, allowing us to think through multiple complex ideas at the same time.
This is one of the secrets of expertise. When someone has deep experience in a subject, they’ve developed thousands of chunks that relate to their field. They think and debate in chunks that compress the details and create room for more chunks.
This is why experts are often difficult to understand. They’re so used to thinking in chunks that they leave out the details novices need to understand.
We don’t consciously generate chunks. They are a by-product of practice and experience. They form through repetition and develop over time. The most capable people in any field have likely put in the time and effort to develop a wide variety of useful chunks.
The Science of Chunking
The original video below is under 3 minutes and explains how we came to understand the role chunking plays in how we think. The experiment in the video has been replicated many times over and reveals a fundamental mechanism of the human mind. Once you see it, you won’t be able to unsee it.
The study in the video: Chase, W.G., & Simon, H.A. (1973). Perception in chess. Cognitive Psychology, 4(1), 55-81. LINK
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Amazing. Almost feels similar to LLMs work as well.