George A. Miller Research Paper

George A. Miller and the Cognitive Science Revolution

The well-known scholar George A. Miller caused the downfall of the behaviorist school of psychology and the rise of cognitive science in the 1950s. This created a revolution that changed the study of the human mind with insights of mental processes that moved psychological research beyond behaviorist methods. His discoveries regarding short term memory and information processing provided a foundation for cognitive science to flourish. This led him to become one of the leading psychologists of the late 20th century.

Dr. Miller was born on February 3rd, 1920, in West Virginia. He was an only child of divorced parents and lived with his mother through the great depression. Nonetheless, Miller

Which ultimately created an explosion of new thinking and caused a shift from behaviorism to cognitive science. In his paper, he discussed his revolutionary discovery that humans can hold about seven things in their short term memory. Miller completed numerous experiments with different tests of the memory. Besides testing people’s memory with numbers, he would also use various other variables, such as letters, syllables, and even by recognizing familiar tones. This additionally revolutionized the world of psychology, by demonstrating that the human mind, though unseen, could also be observed and tested in the lab. With all of his experiments he also came to the conclusion that we remember things better in “chunks”. This idea of grouping things, such as numbers, into smaller groups are easier to remember and work with. Miller’s theory of chunking had even lead to the Washington Post Editorial Board to argue against the U.S. Postal Services that had proposed a nine digit ZIP code system, which would have been harder for people to remember. In fact, Millers chunking system is still used today in phone numbers, social security numbers, and much more. Miller became the leader in the study of short term memory due to all of his experiments and his paper became the most frequently quoted in psychology. Additionally, the extraordinary number seven was not only representing his career, but also his golf game! At the age of seventy-seven, Miller made the only hole in one of his life on the seventh green with a seven iron according to his