Why is it easier to remember 201319421939 than 492584169747?

Why is it easier to remember 201319421939 than 492584169747?

Because we can chunk the first sequence up in three parts and make associations, remembering 2013 as it the actual year now, 1942 for example being the year in wich the systematic deportation of Jews from warsaw ghetto began and 1939 as the beginning of the 2ww.

It's easier to remember 201319421939 than the other number because it's possible to separate it into smaller meaningful elements (2013-1942-1939). This process of combining small elements (the individual numbers in this case) into bigger, meaningful ones is called chunking. The numbers are very long (they exceed the 'magical number' of 7 minus or plus 2) and may prove tricky to learn but chunking makes it quite simple.

The reason 2013-1942-1939 is easy to chunk and remember also depends on our semantic knowledge, without any meaning to us it would be equally as difficult to remember as 4925-8416-9747. This effect could probably also be due to the fact than when using our semantic knowledge we are encoding the information more deeply so it will be easier to retrieve.

The mind can remember the 7+-2 informations. Hovever people are able to tell a tory or memorize incredibly long numbers. It is because one can create chunk. In this case the number 201319421939 can be divided in 2013-1942-1939, so three important dates, while 492584169747 for most people mean nothing.