Is there any scientific results on the difficulty of picking elements from a list?

I am looking for a reasonably formal study of the impact of the number of elements in a list (e.g. a dropdown menu) on the time, effort, and loss of comfort for the user whose task it is to pick one element in the list.

I'm looking for something akin to Fitt's Law or Dreyfus' the measure of man's part on basic data reading in terms of scientific process.