Chunking is the organization of individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful units. It is one of the most effective ways to expand the limited capacity of working memory.

A classic demonstration uses digit strings. Most people can hold about seven unrelated digits in mind. Group the same digits into familiar dates or familiar number patterns and the same person can remember far more. Chess masters remember the positions of pieces on a board not as isolated items but as meaningful configurations; novices, lacking those chunks, remember far less. Language itself is a chunking system: letters form words, words form phrases, phrases form sentences.

Chunking depends on prior knowledge. What counts as a single chunk for an expert may be many separate items for a beginner. Practice therefore improves memory span not by increasing raw capacity but by building richer chunks. The technique is used deliberately in mnemonic systems and appears spontaneously whenever people master a new domain.

By binding elements together, chunking turns a trickle of information into a manageable stream.