Largely attributed to the work of Miller (1956, 1994), chunking refers to the process

of organizing and grouping small units of information into larger clusters. The ability
to chunk information (a) helps an individual remember more, (b) gives the individual
a means of accessing the information that is ultimately stored in his or her memory,
and (c) increases the amount of information we can deal with (Miller, 1956, p. 95).
Miller suggested that this process is ongoing as we recode information constantly in
an effort to assimilate new information with current knowledge. For instance, as we
learn new information, if it sounds familiar or if it fits into an existing category we
tend to remember and relate the new information to the existing category, creating
powerful connections within the chunk (see also Gobet & Simon, 1996; Higham,
1997).
Thus, chunking serves as both a triggering device and as a code building device for
our memory. The triggering aspect of chunks relies on the strength of a chunk or
group of related chunks. Chunks are arranged in a hierarchical fashion, so the most
memorable items will consist of information that is most relevant to the individual
attempting to learn (Servan-Schreiber & Anderson, 1990). Code building is often
accomplished through replication of chunks or related information that allows the
participant to recall chunks for later use.
Dapus : Chunking, Priming and Active
Learning: Toward an innovative
and blended approach to teaching
communication-related skills
Graham D. Bodie
a
*
, William G. Powers
b1
,and
Margaret Fitch-Hauser
c
a
Purdue University, Indiana, USA;
b
Texas Christian University, Texas, USA;
c
Auburn
University, Auburn, USA
Interactive Learning Environments
Vol. 14, No. 2, August 2006, pp. 119135
http://www.psych.ufl.edu/~abrams/cognition/Articles/bodie_et_al_06.pdf
Humans possess unique social abilities that set us apart from other species. These abilities
may be partially
supported by a large capacity for maintaining and manipulating social information. Ef
fi

cient social working

memory might arise from two different sources: chunking of social information or a domainspeci
fi
cbuffer.
Thechunking
hypothesis is based upon the well-known process of chunking, in which
perceptual systems gro
up associated low-level information into high
level chunks (
Gobet et al., 2001
). It is important to note that chunking
may occur as a deliberate retrieval
strategy or as an automatic process,
with the transition to automaticity mediated by practice. Given the high
degree of familiarity people have with faces, we use chunking to refe
to the automatic process throughout the paper.
Druzgal and D'Esposito
(2003)
actually suggested the use of chunking in working memory for
facial identity, and from there the extension to other social dimensions
of faces and social information more generally is a relatively short one.
By preprocessing

i.e. chunking

wemaybeabletoreducethecomplex
sensory correlates of social data down to much more manageable representations of social information. Given the large number of facial features
related to perceptions of trustworthiness (
Oosterhof and Todorov, 2008
),
the reduction of this lengthy visual feature vector to a more manageable
social representation may well explain increased ef
fi
ciency in social
working memory.
Dapus : http://wjh.harvard.edu/~thornton/Thornton&Conway2013.pdf
Theoretical Background
Interest in information processing started since the
forties
of the last century when psychologists tried to underst
and
the mechanisms of cognitive processes of encoding,
storage, retrieval.
Haberland 1994 emphasizes that the development of
information processing trend was a reaction to the

behavioral trend; therefore the study of cognitive

processes is not new in psychology.
Before the school of behaviorism attracted the intere
st
of most of the researchers and gained wide fame,
Tolman used cognitive maps to explain the intentiona
l
behavior and adopted a number of cognitive methods
which mediates the stimulus and the response.
Pavlov used the concept of the second signal system to
explain the individual learning of language. Vygots
ky
spoke about inner speech as a cognitive awareness,
which is considered as a clear reaction to the American
behaviorism.
Psychologists realized that in order to identify an
integrated system for information processing this req
uires
the studying of sensation, attention, perception, thi
nking.
160 Glo. Adv. Res. J. Soc. Sci.
Psychologists provided a lot of notions about the mod
els
of information processing. Many of them tried to expl
ain
memory components, functions and locations as
compared with other cognitive processes. These models
try to simplify and organize the work of memory and
rearrange them in models that are consistent with th
e
trend of information processing.
The human memory is divided into three storages:
sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term
memory. The information is transferred from one stag
e to
another through many processes. (Al-Atoum, 2008: 281289)
The component that holds the information for a very
short time is called short-term memory S.T.M. This
type
of memory is used to hold a phone number until it i
s
used, to absorb a written or heard idea, to follow
a
conversation. The short-term memory lies between the
sensory memory and the long-term memory. It is a virtu
al
structure with low capacity but has a great importance.
In
S.T.M. the information related to environmental sti

mulus
is handled which is transferred through the senses a
nd
the sensory memory. Perhaps the low capacity of the
S.T.M. is connected with the limited ability to process
information (Al-Zghoul, 2003: 135)
The other type of memory are the long-term memory
L.T.M. psychologists subdivide the LTM into two
subdivisions; explicit memory that recalls informatio
n in a
conscious manner, and implicit memory that recalls
information in an unconscious manner. The procedural
memory is considered one of the most important forms
of
this memory which its information refers to how to
perform certain skills which is gained by the individua
l
through experience and learning (Al-Atoum, 2008: 296
)
Memory is affected by training. The more training of
memory will lead to the more accurate and organized
information retrieval. this is indicated in the stud
y of
Pirollly and Anderson 1985. The phenomenon of memory
performance as a function of training strength explai
n the
phenomenon of the unity of the existence. Noel and
Rosenblum 1981 referred to this phenomenon as the l
aw
of training strength (Anderson, 2007: 254)
dapus : http://garj.org/garjss/pdf/2013/july/Zageer.pdf
dapus : http://home.gwu.edu/~dopkins/SargentDopkinsPhilbeckChichka.pdf

Chunking berhubungan dengan tindakan menyusun ulang atau mencacah suatu

pengalaman atau informasi ke dalam potongan yang lebih besar atau dalam potonganpotongan yang lebih kecil. Dalam kata lain Chunking berarti mengatur atau mengelompokkan
bagian yang terpisah dari informasi bersama. Chunking dapat membuat proses penghafalan
menjadi lebih mudah dan ada kemungkinan bahwa kamu akan mengingat hal itu dikemudian
hari. Jenis-jenis kelompok juga dapat bertindak sebagai petunjuk untuk membantu kita
mengingat apa yang ada di masing-masing kelompok.

Chunking menggabungkan item yang terpisah dari informasi ke unit besar, atau
potongan, dan kemudian mengingat potongan informasi dari item individu. Seperti pertama
kali diusulkan oleh George Miller (1956), chunking adalah alat mengingat yang kuat yang
sangat meningkatkan jumlah informasi yang dapat diandalkan dalam memori jangka pendek.
Menghafal nomor telepon adalah salah satu contoh yang sering digunakan dalam penggunaan
chunking, biasanya kita membagi no tersebut kedalam 3 atau 4 bagian, sehingga dengan
demikian kita akan dapat mudah mengingat dan menghafal nomor tresebut. Chunking juga
dapat sangat berguna ketika anda mencoba untuk menghafal sejumlah besar informasi, seperti
urutan nomor atau daftar kata.
Sangat sulit dibanyangkan jika manusia tidak mempunyai kecakapan untuk
mengklasifikasikan. Sehingga pantaslah jika pengelompokan adalah kemampuan kognitif
paling dasar. (Bruner, Goodnow &Austin 1967 dalam West,Charles). Mungkin manusia yang
lebih cakap dalam kemampuan ini akan lebih mampu bertahan dan mampu menyampaikan
berbagai pengetahuan kepada keturunan mereka.
Strategi Chunking ini merupakan contoh skema nyata yang digunakan manusia
untuk mendeskripsikan, memahami, mempresentasikan dan mengingat benda maupun
peristiwa. Bahkan chunking sudah dimulai sejak usia anak-anak. Mereka mampu menyortir
benda-benda sesuai warna, bentuk, ukuran dll.
Chunking telah lama menjadi focus penelitian, Banyak sekali peneliti yang
membuat definisi chunking, diantaranya: Bousfield : clustering (pengelompokan), Jenkins
dan Russel: Penataan (structuring), Mandler: pengorganisasian, dan Katona : grouping
(pengelompokan).