What is it about the number three we like so much when it comes to a list of choices? It’s the default number, closely followed by 10, and probably 50, and then one hundred.
This is a curious thing, really, because since 1956 we’ve known about the Magic Number 7 from a paper by cognitive psychologist, George A. Miller. It presupposes that at any
As the protective mechanism for sensory overload here are three filters sifting visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory input, and we can only cognisantly hold 7 plus-or-minus-2 separate bits of information in our mind. That of course is either 5, 7 or 9 discernable pieces, or blocks of information. It’s not to say that these numbers represent singular things; information can be adapted by groups in order to expand our mental proficiency.
There is a common behavioural therapy analogy of the brain operating as a computer does. The presumption is that the world around you sends raw data, which is processed by organising clusters of information by each of your five senses.
From this comes our perception and experience of a living being.
Or a being living, depending to your belief of neurology being influenced by language.
Two of these three filters are generalisation and distortion. The third is deletion. That’s how we manage our mind and emotions and the way we move through the world.
There are approximately 2 million bits of information entering our brains per second, we delete, distort and generalise through our filters until we reach the number seven plus or minus two. This means that we are programmed by our filters in how we experience life and its events, and our response to them.
Estimations of raw data input have massively increased from between 2 million bits-per-second (bps) in the 1970s, to around 6 billion today. A tripling in 50 years, and yet the sorting capacity of the conscious mind has, and basically does, stay within the parameters 123 and 134 bps.
That’s a fairly measured swim whilst immersed in a relentless and teeming sea.
What happens with this deluge of raw data? According to the Neuro Linguistic Programming model, 99% of it is stored in the subconscious, making every bit of it available, if it’s accessible and retrievable.
With all this useful knowledge you’d think you’d be reading about 5, 7 or 9 of the best Surfers Paradise electricians and instead you’re finding out about three. Maybe to observe your own conscious processing read it three times to make that 9 and see what happens.
Who knows if any of them are electricians promoting themselves with SEO or if they’ve ever been an electrician in Sydney’s Coogee and Bondi area. If that were the case it’s easy then to imagine they would indeed find a move to Surfers Paradise appealing.