Visual capability to receive character information. Part II: How long do we need to memorize the random characters...

The time-related aspect of the capability to receive character information was measured and analysed. As a result, when the presentation time was shorter than one second, ability was almost constant, but when it exceeded one second it increased as the presentation time increased. It was found that when a pattern was presented without limiting the presentation time, there were linear relationships between the number of characters to be memorized and the time required to memorize all the characters correctly in the range of 2 to 6 characters, 7 to 12 and 13 to 16 (or more). These boundaries corresponded well to a unit of memory well known as the magical number 7 plus minus 2. From these results, it was estimated that a grouping mechanism exists even when memorizing characters and that it has a hierarchical structure.