Writing Out a Temporal Signal of Chunks: Patterns of Pauses Reflect the Induced Structure of Written Number Sequences

Writing may be an effective approach to the study of cognitive phenomena that involve the processing of chunks. This paper provides evidence for the existence of a substantial and robust temporal signal in the process of writing that reveals information about the structure of chunks in working memory. Specifically, it is demonstrated that in the writing of simple number sequences the duration of pauses between written elements (digits) that are within a chunk are shorter than the pauses between elements across the boundary of chunks. This temporal signal is apparent in un-aggregated data for individual participants in single trials.