Expertise and Skilled Memory Effects
Studies have shown that people have better memories when they are trying to remember items with which they are familiar. Similarly, people tend to create chunks with which they are familiar. This familiarity allows them to remember more individual pieces of content, and also more chunks as a whole. An example of this is a distance runner attempting to memorize numbers. Runners may chunk the numbers into different relevant mile times. This allows the expert runner to memorize more numbers by making them relevant to him or herself. As a result, the runner will be able to remember more chunks. A person who is not an expert or familiar with running times would have difficulty with this, and ultimately not be able to memorize as many numbers.
Read more about this topic: Chunking (psychology)
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