712-569-4532
Instead of having to remember 10 separate numerals, a phone number has three
chunks, with four or less items in each chunk. If you know the area code by heart (that is,
it’s stored in long-term memory), then you don’t have to remember that part of the number,
so you can ignore one whole chunk.
Years ago phone numbers were easier to remember because you mainly called
people in your area code, so you didn’t have to hold the area code in working memory.
It was in long-term memory, which we will get to shortly. In the good old days you didn’t
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even need to use the area code if the number you were calling from was in the same
area code as you were dialing from (not true anymore in most places). And to make it
even easier, everyone in town had the same exchange (the 569 part of the previous
phone number). If you were dialing someone in your town with the same exchange, all
you had to remember was the last four numbers. No problem! (I know I’m dating myself
here by telling you how it used to be back in the old days. I live now in a small town in
Wisconsin, and people here still give their number to others as the last four digits only,
even though just four numbers won’t work anymore).