George A. Miller
Encyclopedia
George Armitage Miller is the author of one of the most highly cited papers in psychology, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
" published in 1956 in Psychological Review
. This paper suggests that seven (plus or minus two) is the magic number that characterizes people's memory performance on random lists of letters, words, numbers, or almost any kind of meaningful familiar item.
According to a widely cited multi-method empirical study, Miller is the 20th most historically important psychologist of the 20th century.
, based on military research he did during the war
on the topic of speech perception, under the supervision of Stanley Smith Stevens
.
In 1960, Miller founded the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard with Jerome Bruner
, a cognitive developmentalist. In the same year, he published a key book in the development of nonbehaviorist psychology, 'Plans and the Structure of Behaviour' (with Eugene Galanter
and Karl Pribram
), which outlined their conception of Cognitive Psychology
.
He is known in the linguistics
community, for overseeing the development of WordNet
, a semantic network for the English language
. He is also known for coining Miller's Law
: In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume it is true and try to imagine what it could be true of.
He is presently professor of psychology
at Princeton University
's Department of Psychology
. He formerly served as Professor of Psychology at Rockefeller University
, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and at Harvard University
, where he was Chairman of the Department of Psychology. He was a Fulbright Research Fellow at Oxford University. He is also a former President of the American Psychological Association
, and in 1991, received the National Medal of Science
.
" introduced by Miller (1956). He noticed that the memory span of young adults was around seven elements, called chunks
, regardless whether the elements were digits, letters, words, or other units. Later research revealed that span does depend on the category of chunks used (e.g., span is around seven for digits, around six for letters, and around 5 for words), and even on features of the chunks within a category. For instance, span is lower for long than for short words. In general, memory span for verbal contents (digits, letters, words, etc.) strongly depends on the time it takes to speak the contents aloud, and on the lexical status of the contents (i.e., whether the contents are words known to the person or not). Several other factors also affect a person's measured span, and therefore it is difficult to pin down the capacity of short-term or working memory to a number of chunks. Nonetheless, Cowan (2001) has proposed that working memory has a capacity of about four chunks in young adults (and less in children and old adults).
, a linguistic knowledgebase that maps the way the mind stores and uses language. Development began in 1985 and the project has received about $3 million of funding, mainly from government agencies interested in machine translation
. He spent the later part of his career building and expanding this database. He also worked on a number of commercial applications based on WordNet, most notably, Simpli
. Simpli was an early Internet search and marketing engine created by George Miller and a number of Professors and graduate students at Brown University
, including Jeff Stibel
, James A. Anderson
and Steve Reiss. Simpli utilized WordNet to "read" search queries and disambiguate them. It was also used to read webpages and derive representative keywords so that advertising could be presented. Applied Semantics
, a competing search engine that was eventually acquired by Google
and evolved into Google AdSense
, was based on the WordNet lexicon, as well.
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was published in 1956 by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Princeton University's Department of Psychology in Psychological...
" published in 1956 in Psychological Review
Psychological Review
Psychological Review is a scientific journal that publishes articles on psychological theory. It was founded by Princeton psychologist James Mark Baldwin and Columbia psychologist James McKeen Cattell in 1894 as a publication vehicle for psychologists not connected with the Clark laboratory of G....
. This paper suggests that seven (plus or minus two) is the magic number that characterizes people's memory performance on random lists of letters, words, numbers, or almost any kind of meaningful familiar item.
According to a widely cited multi-method empirical study, Miller is the 20th most historically important psychologist of the 20th century.
Biography
Miller received his PhD in 1946 from Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, based on military research he did during the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
on the topic of speech perception, under the supervision of Stanley Smith Stevens
Stanley Smith Stevens
Stanley Smith Stevens was an American psychologist who founded Harvard's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory and is credited with the introduction of Stevens' power law. Stevens authored a milestone textbook, the 1400+ page "Handbook of Experimental Psychology" . He was also one of the founding organizers...
.
In 1960, Miller founded the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard with Jerome Bruner
Jerome Bruner
Jerome Seymour Bruner is an American psychologist who has contributed to cognitive psychology and cognitive learning theory in educational psychology, as well as to history and to the general philosophy of education. Bruner is currently a senior research fellow at the New York University School...
, a cognitive developmentalist. In the same year, he published a key book in the development of nonbehaviorist psychology, 'Plans and the Structure of Behaviour' (with Eugene Galanter
Eugene Galanter
Eugene Galanter is an academic in the field of experimental psychology and author. Currently, Dr. Galanter is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Quondam Director of the Psychophysics Laboratory at Columbia University...
and Karl Pribram
Karl H. Pribram
Karl H. Pribram is a professor at Georgetown University, in the United States, and an emeritus professor of psychology and psychiatry at Stanford University and Radford University...
), which outlined their conception of Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
.
He is known in the linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
community, for overseeing the development of WordNet
WordNet
WordNet is a lexical database for the English language. It groups English words into sets of synonyms called synsets, provides short, general definitions, and records the various semantic relations between these synonym sets...
, a semantic network for the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. He is also known for coining Miller's Law
Miller's law
-In communication:Miller's law, part of his theory of communication, was formulated by George Miller, Princeton Professor and psychologist.It instructs us to suspend judgment about what someone is saying so we can first understand them without imbuing their message with our own personal...
: In order to understand what another person is saying, you must assume it is true and try to imagine what it could be true of.
He is presently professor of psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
's Department of Psychology
Princeton University Department of Psychology
The Princeton University Department of Psychology, located in Green Hall, is an academic department of Princeton University on the corner of Washington St. and William St. in Princeton, New Jersey. For over a century, the department has been one of the most notable psychology departments in the...
. He formerly served as Professor of Psychology at Rockefeller University
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. It has a strong concentration in the biological sciences. It is also known for producing numerous Nobel laureates...
, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
and at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he was Chairman of the Department of Psychology. He was a Fulbright Research Fellow at Oxford University. He is also a former President of the American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
, and in 1991, received the National Medal of Science
National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
.
Magic number seven
Working memory is generally considered to have limited capacity. The earliest quantification of the capacity limit associated with short-term memory was the "magical number sevenThe Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was published in 1956 by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Princeton University's Department of Psychology in Psychological...
" introduced by Miller (1956). He noticed that the memory span of young adults was around seven elements, called chunks
Chunking (psychology)
Chunking, in psychology, is a phenomenon whereby individuals group responses when performing a memory task. Tests where individuals can illustrate "chunking" commonly include serial and free recall, as these both require the individual to reproduce items that he or she had previously been...
, regardless whether the elements were digits, letters, words, or other units. Later research revealed that span does depend on the category of chunks used (e.g., span is around seven for digits, around six for letters, and around 5 for words), and even on features of the chunks within a category. For instance, span is lower for long than for short words. In general, memory span for verbal contents (digits, letters, words, etc.) strongly depends on the time it takes to speak the contents aloud, and on the lexical status of the contents (i.e., whether the contents are words known to the person or not). Several other factors also affect a person's measured span, and therefore it is difficult to pin down the capacity of short-term or working memory to a number of chunks. Nonetheless, Cowan (2001) has proposed that working memory has a capacity of about four chunks in young adults (and less in children and old adults).
WordNet and Simpli
George Miller was the founder of WordNetWordNet
WordNet is a lexical database for the English language. It groups English words into sets of synonyms called synsets, provides short, general definitions, and records the various semantic relations between these synonym sets...
, a linguistic knowledgebase that maps the way the mind stores and uses language. Development began in 1985 and the project has received about $3 million of funding, mainly from government agencies interested in machine translation
Machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.On a basic...
. He spent the later part of his career building and expanding this database. He also worked on a number of commercial applications based on WordNet, most notably, Simpli
Simpli
Simpli was an early search engine that offered disambiguation to search terms. A user could enter in a search term that was ambiguous and the search engine would return a list of alternatives .The technology was rooted in brain science and built by academics to model the way in which the mind...
. Simpli was an early Internet search and marketing engine created by George Miller and a number of Professors and graduate students at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, including Jeff Stibel
Jeff Stibel
Jeffrey M. Stibel is an entrepreneur, having started numerous technology and marketing companies. At age 32, he became one of the youngest public company CEOs in America and opened the NASDAQ stock market on June 15, 2007. He is also a brain scientist and published author.- Business :Stibel is...
, James A. Anderson
James A. Anderson
James A. Anderson is a Professor of Cognitive Science and Brain Science at Brown University. His multi-disciplinary background includes expertise in psychology, biology, physics, neuroscience and computer science. Anderson received his Ph.D...
and Steve Reiss. Simpli utilized WordNet to "read" search queries and disambiguate them. It was also used to read webpages and derive representative keywords so that advertising could be presented. Applied Semantics
Applied Semantics
Applied Semantics is the study and application of semantics which have many uses, e.g. advertising, text analysis, web traffic of search engines, web page rankings, and the indexation of words.Applied Semantics is also the name of a company....
, a competing search engine that was eventually acquired by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and evolved into Google AdSense
AdSense
Google AdSense which is a program run by Google Inc. allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to automatically serve text, image, video, and rich media adverts that are targeted to site content and audience. These adverts are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google, and they...
, was based on the WordNet lexicon, as well.