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Chunking

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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Synonyms

Grouping; Parsing; Recoding; Sorting

Definition

Cognitive processes that recode multiple separate stimulus events into groups in memory.

Introduction

Chunking has traditionally referred to cognitive processes that recode multiple separate stimulus events into groups in memory. Chunking has also been referred to as cognitive “recoding,” “grouping,” “sorting,” or “parsing” (e.g., Bower and Springston 1970; Bower and Winzenz 1969; Capaldi et al. 1986; Fountain and Annau 1984; Pribram and Tubbs 1967).

Chunking is considered a fundamental process in cognition because it increases memory capacity and efficiency. The idea of chunking was first proposed by Miller (1956) to explain characteristics of human learning, memory, and speech phenomena from a cognitive perspective. Chunking has since been studied widely in a variety of other species by research in the field of comparative cognition (Capaldi et al. 1986; Fountain and Annau 1984; Hulse 1978; Hulse et al. 1992; Suge and Okanoya 2010...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences and Brain Health Research Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Stephen B. Fountain

  2. Department of Psychology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC, USA

    Jessica L. Sharp

  3. Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Claire C. Jackman & Katherine H. Dyer

Authors
  1. Stephen B. Fountain
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  2. Jessica L. Sharp
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  3. Claire C. Jackman
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  4. Katherine H. Dyer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen B. Fountain .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY, USA

    Sarah Dunphy-Lelii

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Fountain, S.B., Sharp, J.L., Jackman, C.C., Dyer, K.H. (2022). Chunking. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_1582

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