George A. Miller

Pioneers of Human Behaviour: George A. Miller
A Gateway to His Life, Theories, and Legacy

George A. Miller transformed psychology by revealing the hidden architecture of the mind. With his famous paper on “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”, he showed that memory has clear limits, reshaping research on attention, learning, and information processing. From there, he co-founded psycholinguistics, helped launch the cognitive revolution, and built bridges to fields as diverse as linguistics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.

This concise yet powerful volume distils Miller’s life and legacy into engaging, accessible chapters. It traces his journey from a Depression-era childhood and wartime research in sound perception to Harvard’s cognitive laboratories and the creation of WordNet, a tool that still powers modern AI. Along the way, it highlights his influence on education, technology, and our understanding of what it means to think.

Alongside an exploration of Miller’s most important theories, you’ll discover:
• How his “7±2” principle became one of psychology’s most cited findings
• Why chunking remains a timeless strategy for learning and design
• The birth of psycholinguistics and its role in understanding language and thought
• The TOTE model and its influence on cognitive science and artificial intelligence
• How his work bridged psychology with technology, from classrooms to computers

Part biography, part theory guide, and part reflection, this book is both a gateway to Miller’s ideas and a reminder of psychology’s power to adapt across eras. It is written to inspire students, educators, and curious readers who want to understand how one man helped shape the science of cognition.

The Pioneers of Human Behaviour series celebrates the lives and legacies of psychology’s greatest minds, presenting timeless insights in a format designed to inspire, inform, and endure.