Serial position effect in psychology

Learning 2023

The serial position effect refers to the tendency of people to remember the first and last items in a list better than the middle items. 

There are two related effects.

1. The primacy effect is the enhanced memory for the first few items in a list.

Earlier items may be remembered well because of the time for more rehearsal and encoding of these items into long-term memory.

2. The recency effect is the enhanced memory for the last few items in a list. These may be recalled more easily if they are stored in short-term memory. 

It is easier to forget the middle items in a list compared to the early and more recent items due to less processing of the information.

The serial position effect was first discovered by Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist who studied his ability to remember syllables. His work has led to variations on memory tasks such as memory for words and pictures.

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

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