The Effect of Perceptual Characteristics of Chunking in Working Memory Tasks

Abstract

People remember a lot of information. Previous research showed that in visual working memory, people remember only 3 or 4 objects (Luck and Vogel, 1997). However, chunking is one way to retain more information because chunking can compress information (Gilchrist, 2015). Chunking happens when people are familiar with the information, or the information has perceptual characteristics; however, the chunking mechanism still needs to be fully understood (Gilchrist, 2015). This research aims was that perceptual chunking influences memory capacity in visual working memory tasks. Participants were adults, and we used color squares patterns using computers in working memory tasks. This research resulted in easy to chunk figures having a higher correct answer rate than difficult to chunk. Thus, easy to chunk is easier and more accurate to remember than difficult to chunk.