Murdock’s serial position curve

• Aim- to see if the position of a word in the list...

  Affected the probability of recalling it
• Method-

  • Used 103 students
  • Participants listened to 20 word lists, containing 10-40 words.
  • Participants were then asked to recall the words.
• Results-

  • Words at the start were remembered
  • Words at the end were remembered
• Primacy effect 


  Remembering the start
• Recency effect


  Remembering the end
• Conclusion-

  People are more likely to remember a word if it is at the start or end of a list
• Evaluation point 1

  • Weakness- Can't say for sure that other people would have acted that way
  • Murdock used students
  • Not applicable to real-life
• Evaluation point 2

  • Weakness- Experiment took place in a lab setting
  • Different environment could make them feel nervous or under pressure
  • Lacks ecological validity as results might be innacurate
• Evaluation point 3

  • Weakness- participants took part in several tests
  • Participants could become bored or tired, leading to inaccurate results
  • They could also guess the aim of the study
  • Shows demand characteristics
• Serial position effect

  First and last few words in a list are more likely to be recalled due to their position