The Psychology Behind Information Dashboards / quote 2 of 3
Short-term memory holds about seven chunks
In his article “Short-Term Memory and Web Usability,” Jakob Nielsen points out that the human mind can’t store much information in short term memory and that this is especially true when they are bombarded with multiple abstract or unusual pieces of data in rapid succession. He cites research that suggests our short-term memory holds only about seven chunks of information, and that these fade from our brain in about 20 seconds.