:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       1e135aee-0464-4756-9f55-bbf12afe8254
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#+title: Chunking
#+date: "2021-05-14 12:33:21 +08:00"
#+date_modified: "2021-07-21 15:33:38 +08:00"
#+language: en


The behavior of chunking is present in a lot of ways.

- When we hear the word "popsicle", you may have already envisioned an image of the popsicle.
- Memorizing a phone number, dividing the number into groups — e.g., 39281841938 into 392-818-419-38.
- When learning about speedtyping, you may have heard of the advice to learn typing by syllables instead of individual letters.
- In formal education, most higher-level topics are essentially combining previous topics — e.g., learning mathematics in formal education tends to be: learning the numbers, to counting, then arithmetics, and finally branching out to algebra, geometry, statistics, and calculus.
- Problem solving tends to be divided into subtasks.

Neuroscientifically, a chunk is a group of neurons learned to sing in tune whenever we react in a certain way.
Chunking makes it easier to hold more information with fewer mental resources.
We learn bits of information, combining them into chunks, condensing the information.
This condensed information can then be combined with other information thereby creating a web of information (or scientifically, neural structures).
Along with the [[id:6e8912b3-1687-47dc-9d85-269ea6372317][Anatomy of the brain]], this is one of the basis of how [[id:9f1f35dd-7cf9-4f47-a9a9-b647e5daa2af][We are more associative than structured]].
