6 4 7 Don’t Eat

I’m pointed to Robert’s Random Thoughts by Semi-Daily Journal. There’s a long post today about psychology, economics, and short term memory:

One of the great bits of evidence from the psych literature is that overweight people can resist nibbling if they are remembering a 3 digit number but not if they are remembering a 7 digit number (see the magic number 7). They had to remember for 5 minutes or so. They weren’t warned that they would be tempted with food.
The guess is in the heads of the 3 digit non-nibblers is “6, 4, 7, don’t eat, 6, 4, 7, don’t eat, 6, 4, 7, don’t eat, 6, 4, 7, don’t eat, 6, 4, 7, don’t eat” while in the heads of the the 7 digit nibblers was “6, 4, 7, 3, 5, 2, 4 ; 6, 4, 7, 3, 5, 2, 4; 6, 4, 7, 3, 5, 2, 4 , hey why is my stomach full!?”

I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s quite funny.