Before information can be integrated into long term memory it must be received
and processed by our working memory. Working memory is very limited; it
can only handle small amounts of information before it has to be integrated into
our long term memory or lost. In his landmark article on this subject, George
Miller (1956) suggested that we can only process about seven pieces of
information at one time. And, we must do so quickly, as working memory can
only keep information for about 20 seconds.