Memory Chunking

Oftentimes you would receive a long list of terms, dates, and or formulas you need to remember for an upcoming exam. Of course, memorizing a 50 word vocab list can seem very intimidating and stressful. But it doesn’t have to?

Understand The Theory

Learn Its Applications

You can take advantage of Miller’s theory of Memory Chunking (1956). Memory Chunking is identifying similar data from a large sample and consolidating it into “chunks” of 5-9 pieces of information. Rather than trying to memorize each piece of information by itself, you can focus on remembering the chunks of information instead.

People do this often in their daily lives with things like phone numbers. For example, look at the two lists of numbers below:

8009843672

800-984-3672

Give yourselves 3 seconds to memories each one. You will find that you are able to recall more words from the list on the right because the numbers are chunked into 3-4 units of data which is easier for your brain to remember.

You can use memory chunking to help yourself remember information for class or exams using one of the methods below.

Mnemonic Devices

Think of ROY G BIV that helps you remember the order of the rainbow or PEMDAS to remember the order of operations. You can make your own mnemonic devices that are easier for your brain to encode than trying to memorize the information separately

Taxonomic Classification Order:

King -> Kingdom

Phillip -> Phylum

Came -> Class

Over -> Order

For -> Family

Good -> Genus

Soup -> Species

Categories and Lists

The next time you have a large list of vocabulary words, try to sort them into related categories. It becomes easier to recall the words if you remember the category they fall under.

Un-Chunked List:

Butter

Grapes
Carrots
Milk
Banana
Strawberry
Lettuce

Chunked List:

Dairy:

Milk
Butter

Fruit:

Banana
Strawberry
Grapes

Vegetables:

Carrots
Lettuce

Notecards

Similar to the categories and list strategy above, you can use notecards to organize large lists into smaller chunks. For example, you can write the year 1914 on the front side of the card and the important historical events associated with that year on the back. Then frequently go through the cards, chunking the dates with the key events.

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References

Kayla. “Chunking Memory Strategy in Middle School Science - Bright in the Middle.” Bright in the Middle, June 2021, www.brightinthemiddle.com/chunking-memory-strategy-in-middle-school-science/.

“Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81–97. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0043158

PLB. “How Can I Use Chunking as an Effective Memory Strategy in the Classroom?” K12teacherstaffdevelopment.com, 2023, k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/how-can-i-use-chunking-as-an-effective-memory-strategy-in-the-classroom/.