{"id":6676126,"date":"2026-06-28T08:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T13:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/?p=6676126"},"modified":"2026-06-02T12:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T17:22:23","slug":"when-five-doesnt-equal-five-counting-slots-in-working-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/when-five-doesnt-equal-five-counting-slots-in-working-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"When Five Doesn’t Equal Five: Counting “Slots” in Working Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019ve been to a Learning and the Brain conference in the last 26 years, you\u2019ve heard at least one speaker talk about the importance of working memory<\/strong>. Your working memory \u2013 typically abbreviated WM \u2013 allows your mind to hold a few bits of information and then reorganize and combine them into something new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, imagine I say to you \u201cwithout writing anything down, alphabetize the workdays of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You start by recalling those days in the order they occur: \u201cMonday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.\u201d Now that you\u2019re holding<\/em> those bits of information, you can reorganize<\/em> them in your mind: \u201cFriday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday.\u201d Voila: that was working memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can quickly see that WM is at the core of all academic learning<\/em>. To learn (almost) anything new, students must use their working memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For that reason, discussions of WM typically stress this alarming point: we just don\u2019t have very much working memory<\/em>. For instance: recall that alphabetizing task I gave you a few paragraphs ago. When I ask teachers to do that in a workshop, most of them succeed. But a few minutes later, when I ask them to alphabetize 10 months of the year, they laugh nervously and give up almost immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In brief: alphabetize 5, no problem. Alphabetize 10, no can do. This realization guides almost everything we do as teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Size of The Problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The importance of these insights leads to an obvious question. We know that working memory is small\u2026but just<\/em> how small<\/em>? Exactly how narrow is this cognitive bottleneck that constricts students\u2019 thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best-known answer comes from a well-known article<\/a> by George Miller, written way back in 1956. His clever title tells us what we need to know: \u201cThe Magical Number Seven Plus or Minus Two.\u201d Miller\u2019s formula says, basically, that adults have, roughly, 7 \u201cslots\u201d in WM. Some folks have lower WM capacity \u2013 perhaps as low as 5. Others reach higher \u2013 up to 9. Voila: 7\u00b12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From one perspective, this formula makes sense. It puts plausible numbers on two experiences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n